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ENGLISH HISTORY 



FOR 



AMERICAN READERS 



ENGLISH HISTORY 



FOR 



AMERICAN READERS 



BY 



/ 



THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON 

AUTHOR OF "YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," ETC. 

AND 

EDWARD ^CHANNING 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



NEW YORK 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

15 East Sixteenth Street 
1893 



Copyright, 1893, 
By Longmans, Green, and Co. 



(THE LIBRARY, 
OT CONGRESS 
^WASHlNGTou 






Sattttattg press: 

John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A. 



PREFACE. 



' | ""HE name " English History for American Readers," 
which suggests the key-note of this book, is based 
on the simple fact that it is not the practice of American 
readers, old or young, to give to English history more 
than a very limited portion of their hours of study. 
However much we may regret this fact, it is undeniable. 
This being the case, it seems clear that such readers 
will use their time to the best advantage if they devote 
it mainly to those events in English annals which have 
had the most direct influence on the history and institu- 
tions of our own land. For instance, an English reader 
might regard the acquisition of the Indian Empire as 
an event rivalling in importance the rise and growth of 
Puritanism in the English Church ; but there can be 
no comparison in the relative importance of these two 
events to an American. Every American sees in the 
rise of Puritanism an essential factor in the creation of 
the thirteen colonies, while the Indian Empire is simply 
a matter of curiosity or wonder. The authors of this 
book have therefore boldly ventured to modify in their 



VI PREFACE. 

narrative the accustomed scale of proportion ; while it 

has been their wish, in the treatment of every detail, to 

accept the best result of modern English investigation, 

and especially to avoid all unfair or one-sided judgments. 

The career of England is too important in the history 

of the human race to be handled in any petty or partisan 

spirit. 

THE AUTHORS. 



A LIST OF SOME USEFUL BOOKS FOR 
CONSULTATION. 

Books suitable for young students are marked with an asterisk. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES. 

This list is in no sense a complete list of authorities. For such 
information, reference should be made to the following : — 
Allen, Wm. F. The Reader's G?iide to English History. 
Gardiner and Mullinger. English History for Students. — 

Contains an historical sketch by Gardiner, and a comprehensive 

bibliography by Mullinger. 

Lists may also be found prefixed to the first three volumes of 
Bright's English History, and in Gardiner's Student's History, 
pp. ioo, 172, 288, 359, 480, 577, 648, 744, 818, 890, 972. 

GENERAL WORKS. 

Acland and Ransome. Handbook in Outline of the Political 
History of England. — Arranged in three parallel columns, with 
topical summaries at the end. The most useful book of its kind 
for teachers and readers. 

Longmans' Summary of English History. 

Gardiner, S. R. A Student' 's History of England. 1023 pages. 
— The best single-volume history of England, profusely illus- 
trated, but without maps. The latter are provided in the follow- 
ing volume : — 

Gardiner, S. R. Atlas of English History. — Contains 88 maps 
or plans. 

Brewer, J. S., Editor. The Student' 's Hume. 



Vlll A LIST OF SOME USEFUL BOOKS 

Green, J. R. A Short History of the English People, i vol. 
— Also printed in parts, and in a profusely illustrated edition 
in three volumes. 

Macaulay, Lord. History of England. — The introductory mat- 
ter in vol. i. is especially valuable. 

Mahan, A. T. The Influence of Sea Power on History. 

Green, John Richard, Editor. Readings from English History. 

Wheeler, A. M., Editor. Sketches from English History. 

Among the longer works may be mentioned, — 
Bright, G. F. A History of England. 4 vols. I., 449-1485 

(PP- 354); II., 1485-1688 (pp. 449); HI., 1689-1837 (pp. 666); 

IV., 1837-1880 (pp. 577). — Well supplied with maps and tables. 
Green, J. R. A History of the English People. 4 vols. 
Knight, Charles. Popular History of England. — Profusely 

illustrated. 

' ' I- History of England, for the Use of Schools. 

In Three Parts. With Maps and Plans. 

Part I. From the Earliest Times to the Death of Henry 

VII. By F. York Powell. 
Part III. William and Mary to the Present Time. By 
T. F. Tout. 
Powell, F. York, Editor. English History from Contemporary 
Writers ; especially 
Ashley, W. J. Edward III. 
Hutton, W. H. Misrule of Henry III. 
Hutton, W. H. Simon of Montfort. 
Hutton, W. H. S. Thomas of Canterbury. 
Henderson, E. F. Select Historical Documents from the Middle 
Ages. — The first 165 pp. contain documents illustrating English 
history before 1349. 
Gardiner, S . R. Documents illustrating the Puritan Rebellion. 

Among the books designed for children the following may be 
mentioned, — 

*Creighton, Louise. A First History of England. Illustrated. 
* Gardiner, S. R. English History for Young Folks. 
*Yonge, Charlotte M. Young Folks' History of England. 



FOR CONSULTATION. IX 

* Fisher, Mrs. Arabella B. [Buckley]. History of England 

for Beginners. 
*Creighton, Mandell, Editor. Epochs of English History. 

i vol. 

Also printed separately in eight small cloth-covered volumes 
with the following titles: — 

Powell, F. York. Early England to the Nownan Conquest. 
Creighton, Mrs. Mandell. England a Continental Power, 

from the Conquest to the Great Charter. 
Rowley, James. The Rise of the People, and the Growth of 

Parliament. 
Creighton, Mandell. The Tudors and the Refor?nation. 
Gardiner, Mrs. S. R. The Struggle against Absolute Monarchy. 
Rowley, James. The Settlement of the Constitution. 
Tancock, Rev. O. W. England during the American and 

European Wars. 
Browning, Oscar. Modern England. 



SPECIAL WORKS. 

Arranged chronologically according to contents. 

Freeman, E. A. Old English History. 

Hughes, Thomas. Life of King Alfred. 

Freeman, E. A. William the Conqueror (Twelve English 
Statesmen). 

* Freeman, E. A. A Short History of the Norman Conquest. 

Stubbs, W. Early Plantagenets (Epochs of History). 

Green, Mrs. J. R. Henry II. (Twelve English Statesmen). 

Maurice, C. E. Stephen Langton (English Popular Leaders 
Series). 

Longman, W. Edward III. 

Oman, C. W. C. The Art of War in the Middle Ages. 

Ashley, W. J. An Introduction to English Economic History. 

Seligman, E. R. A. Two Chapters in the History of the Medi- 
eval Gttilds of England. 

Palgrave, Sir F. The Merchant and the Friar. 

Seebohm, F. The Oxford Reformers (Colet, Erasmus, More). 



X A LIST OF SOME USEFUL BOOKS 

Creighton, Mandell. Cardinal Wolsey (Twelve English 
Statesmen). 

Creighton, Mandell. The Age of Elizabeth (Epochs of 
History). 

Beesley, E. S. Queen Elizabeth (Twelve English Statesmen). 

Payne. Elizabethan Seamen. 

Cordery, B. M. (Mrs. S. R. Gardiner) and Phillpotts. The 
King and Commonwealth. 

Gardiner, S. R. The Puritan Revolution (Epochs of History). 

Smith, Goldwin. Three English Statesmen (John Pym, Oliver 
Cromwell, William Pitt). 

Boyle, G. D. Selections from Clarendons History of the [Puri- 
tan] Rebellion. 

Guizot, F. Oliver Cromwell. 

Harrison, Frederic. Oliver Cromwell (Twelve English States- 
men). 

Carlyle, Thomas. Letters a7id Speeches of Oliver Cromwell. 

Hannay, D. Admiral Blake. 

Traill, H. D. William III. (Twelve English Statesmen). 

Lecky, W. E. H. History of England in the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury. 8 vols. — A new and convenient edition has been published, 
in which the portions dealing more particularly with Ireland are 
printed separately. 

Morris, E. E. The Age of Anne (Epochs of History). 

Morley, John. Sir Robert Walpole (Twelve English Statesmen). 

Trevelyan, G. O. Early History of Charles Janies Fox. 

Rosebery, Lord. William Pitt (Twelve English Statesmen). 

Russell, W. Clark. Lord Nelson. 

Martineau, Harriet. History of England duri?ig the Thirty 
Years' 1 Peace (1816-46). 

Walpole, Spencer. A History of England from the Conclusion 
of the Great War in 181 5 (to 1857). 

McCarthy, J. Epoch of Reform (Epochs of History). 

McCarthy, J. A History of our Own Times. 

Thursfield. Robert Peel. 

Morley, John. Richard Cobden. 

Froude, J. A. Lord Beaconsfie Id (Twelve English Statesmen). 



FOR CONSULTATION. xi 



CONSTITUTIONAL WORKS. 

Amos, Sheldon. A Primer of the English Constitution and 
Government. 

* Creighton, Louise. The Government of England. 

* Fonblanque, A. de. How we are governed. 
Ransome, C. Rise of Constitutional Govertwient in England. 
Creasy, E. The English Constitutioji. 

Taylor, Hannis. Origin and Growth of the English Consti- 
tution. 

Taswell-Langmead, T. P. English Constitutional History, 
from the Teutonic Conquest to the Present Ti?ne. 

The following three works form together a comprehensive treat- 
ment of the subject : — 

Stubbs, W. Constitutional History of England in its Origin and 
Develop?nent. 3 vols. 

Hallam, H. Constitutional History of England from the Acces- 
sion of Henry VI T. to the death of George II. 3 vols. ; American 
edition in 2 vols. 

May, T. E. Constitutional History of England, 1760- 1860. 
3 vols. ; American edition in 2 vols. 



MINOR WORKS. 

* Creighton, Louise. Stories from English History. 
Creighton, Louise. Social History of England. 
*Yonge, Charlotte M. Cameos from English History. 

* Jones, M. Stories of the Olden Time, from De Joinville and 

Froissart. 

* Lanier, Sidney, Editor. The Boy's Froissart. 

* Edgar, John G. The Wars of the Roses. 
*Gilman, Arthur, Editor. Magna Char ta Stories. 
*Kingsley, Rose G. The Childj-en of Westminster Abbey. 
Ewald. Stories from the State Papers. 



xii A LIST OF SOME USEFUL BOOKS. 

* Dickens, Charles. A Child's History of England. 
*Rideing, William H. Young Folks' History of London. 

* Brown, Cornelius. True Stories of the Reign of Victoria. 

* Valentine, Mrs. R. Sea Fights and Land Battles. 

* Bishop, Coleman E., Editor. Pictures from English History. 

* Scott, Sir Walter. Tales of a Grandfather. 

* Strickland, Agnes. Tales from English History, for Chil- 

dren. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Early Britain. 

Date. Page 

Continuity of English and American History i 

Early British Races 2 

The Gaels 3 

The Britons 4 

Mode of Life 4 

Religion 5 

v Stonehenge , 5 

B - c - 55~[ Roman Conquest of Britain 7 

a. d. 84 ) Roman Wallg and Roads 7 _ 8 

A. D. 410 Roman Army withdrawn 9 



CHAPTER II. 

How Britain became England (449-827 a.d.). 

449 Coming of the Jutes 10 

The Saxons 11 

The English 12 

Religion of the English 13 

Institutions : the Township, Hundred, and County ... 14 

The Land System 14 

The Meeting of the Wise Men 15 

Conversion of the English to Christianity 15 

827 England united by Egbert of Wessex 16 



XIV 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Northmen in England (827-1042). 
Date. Page 

The Vikings 17 

879 Treaty of Wedmore 18 

871-901 King Alfred of Wessex 18 

St. Dunstan 19 

1017-35 Cnut the Dane, King of England 19 

The Earldoms 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Norman Conquest (1042-1087). 



1066 
1066 

1066-87 



1086 
1086 



1087 



Harold, Son of Godwin, chosen King 23 

Battle of Senlac, or Hastings 24 

William the Conqueror 25 

His Claim to the English Throne 25 

Effect of the Conquest 26 

Continuity of English History 26 

Domesday Book 27 

Oath of Salisbury Plain 27 

Influence of the Catholic Church on England 28 

The New Forest 28 

London Tower and Westminster Hall 29 

William's Death . 29 



CHAPTER V. 

The Norman Kings (1087-1154). 



1087-1100 William II., the Red 30 

His Extravagance 30 

His Death 31 

1 1 00-35 Henry 1 31 

Conquers Normandy 32 

The White Ship 32 

Geoffrey of Anjou marries Maud 33 

1135-54 Stephen 33 

Civil War 34 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 



CHAPTER VI. 

The First Two Plantagenets (1154-1199). 

Date. Page 

1154-89 Henry II - 35 

His Reforms 35 

Shield-money -36 

1 164 Constitutions of Clarendon 36 

Conquest of Ireland 37 

Henry's sons yj 

1189-99 Richard 1 39 

Richard's Death 39 

His Place in England's History 40 



CHAPTER VII. 

King John and Magna Charta (1199-1216). 

Prince Arthur 41 

Philip of France seizes Normandy and Anjou .... 41 

The Interdict 42 

John submits to the Pope 42 

1215 Magna Charta 43 

John's Death 44 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Hfnry III. (1216-1272). 

Earl of Simon of Montfort 47 

1265 Earl Simon's Parliament 48 

1265 Battle of Evesham 48 

CHAPTER IX. 

The First Two Edwards (127 2-1327). 

1272-1307 Edward 1 50 

1276-1284 Conquers Wales 50 

Prince of Wales 50 

The Welsh Bards 51 



XVI CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Date. Page 



Balliol and Bruce 



5i 



1296 Conquest of Scotland 52 

Sir William Wallace • S 2 

1298 Battle of Falkirk 52 

Robert Bruce ° 5 2 

1295 The First Perfect Parliament . . 53 

Its Composition 53 

1297 Confirmation of the Charters 54 

1307-27 Edward II -54 

1307-12 Piers Gaveston 54 

Bruce in Scotland 55 

1314 Battle of Bannockburn • • • 55 

The Irish 55 

The Despensers 55 

1327 Murder of the King 56 

CHAPTER X. 

Edward III. (1327-1377). 

1327-30 Supremacy of Mortimer . . . . 57 

1333 Battle of Halidon Hill 57 

Cause of the Wars with France 59 

1340 Sea-fight at Sluys . 60 

1346 Battle of Cressy 60 

1346-47 Siege of Calais 62 

1348-50 The "Black Death" 62 

1356 Battle of Poitiers 63 

1360 Peace of Bretigny 63 

x 333 Parliament separates into two Houses 65 

1353 Statute of Praemunire 66 

John Wycliffe and the Lollards 66 

Copyhold Tenure 67 

1349 Statute of Laborers 67 

CHAPTER XI. 

Richard II. (1377-1399). 

1381 The Peasants' Revolt 68 

1399 Abdication of Richard 70 

Henry of Lancaster's Claims to the Crown 72 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xvii 



CHAPTER XII. 

England in the Fourteenth Century. 
Date. Page 



Trade 



73 



Financial Policy 74 

Clothes 74 

Commerce 74 

The Guilds 75 

Rise of the English Language 76 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The First two Lancastrian Kings (1399-1422). 

1399-1413 Henry IV 77 

Rise of the Commoners 77 

Maintenance . . 78 

1413-22 Henry V 78 

Renewal of the War with France 79 

1415 Battle of Agincourt 80 

1420 Treaty of Troyes . . 80 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Henry VI. (1422-1460). 

Regency of Bedford and Gloucester 82 

1428-53 Loss of France 82 

1450 Jack Cade's Rebellion 83 

1460 Richard of York claims the Throne 83 

1455 The Wars of the Roses begin 84 

1461 Edward I. of York crowned King . 84 

Forty-shilling Freeholders ,85 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Yorkist Kings (1461-1485). 

1461-83 Edward IV 86 

1475 Invasion of France 87 

1478 Murder of the Duke of Clarence 87 

b 



XV111 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Date. Page 

1483 Edward V 88 

1483-85 Richard III 88 

The Tudors and their Claims . . 88 

1485 Battle of Bosworth 90 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Social Changes during the Fifteenth Century. 

End of the Middle Ages 91 

Printing 91 

Abolition of Villeinage 92 

Loss of Power by Parliament 93 

Money Bills 94 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Henry VII. (1485-1509). 

Henry's Home Policy 95 

The Pretenders, Simnel and Warbeck 95-96 

Henry's Foreign Policy 96 

Court of Star Chamber 96 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Henry VIII. (1509- 1547). 

The Spanish Marriage 98 

1 513 War with France and Scotland ... 100 

Battle of Flodden 100 

Cardinal Wolsey 101 

The Divorce from Katherine 102 

Henry's Personal Rule 103 

1533 The Statute against Appeals to Rome 104 

Destruction of the Monasteries 106 

Effect of this Destruction 107 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIX 

Date. Page 

1536 Execution of Anne Boleyn 108 

1 539 The Six Acts 108 

1540 Fall of Cromwell 109 

Last Years of Henry VIII 109 



CHAPTER XIX. 
Edward VI. (1547-1553). 

Protector Somerset in 

1547 The Scottish War in 

1551 Fall of Somerset 112 

Lady Jane Grey 112 

CHAPTER XX. 
Mary the Catholic (1553— 1558). 

Mary's Policy „ 114 

1554 Marriage with Philip of Spain 114 

1554 Risings in England 116 

The Martyrs 116 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Elizabeth (1 558-1603). 

Character of the Reign 119 

William Cecil, Lord Burleigh 121 

The Church of England 123 

The Puritans 124 

The Roman Catholics 125 

Mary, Queen of Scots 126 

Foreign Policy 128 

1569-86 Roman Catholic Plots 129 

Court of High Commission 130 

1587 Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots 131 

1588 The Invincible Armada 132 

The English in Ireland 135 

Elizabethan Settlement of Ireland 135 

Elizabeth's Last Years 137 



XX CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

State of Society. 
Date. Page 

Commerce 140 

Architecture 140 

The Poor Law 142 

Literature 142 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

James I. (1603-1625). 

His Character 144 

Sir Walter Raleigh t 146 

1605 The Gunpowder Plot 146 

The Puritans 149 

" The Spanish Marriage " 151 

The " Divine Right of Kings " 151 

1621 Impeachment of Bacon 151 

1621 The Great Protestation 152 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
Charles I. (162 5-1649). 

The French Marriage, and War with France .... 153 

1627 The Attempt to relieve La Rochelle 154 

1628 The Petition of Right 154 

1629 Sir John Eliot's Resolutions 157 

1629-40 Personal Government of the King 1 58 

Archbishop Laud and the Puritans . 159 

Ship-money 160 

1637 Hampden's Case 160 

The Scottish Church 163 

1639 The First Bishops' War 164 

1646 The Short Parliament 165 

1640 The Second Bishops' War 165 

1640-60 The Long Parliament 165 

1641 Execution of Strafford 166 

Constitutional Reforms 167 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXI 

Date. Page 

The Patriots disagree about Religion 168 

1641 The Irish Rebellion 168 

1641 The Grand Remonstrance 168 

1642 The Attempt to arrest the Five Members ..... 168 
1642 Civil War begins . 170 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The Civil Wars (1642-1649). 

1643 Death of John Hampden and of John Pym 172 

Oliver Cromwell 173 

Cromwell's Ironsides ... 173 

1644 Battle of Marston Moor 175 

1645 The Self-denying Ordinance 176 

1645 " The New Model " Army, and Battle of Naseby . . . 176 

Charles flees to the Scots 177 

The Independents 177 

The Army seizes the King 178 

1648 The Scots invade England 179 

1648 Battle of Preston 179 

1648 " Pride's Purge " 179 

1649 Execution of the King 180 

1649 Cromwell in Ireland 181 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
The Commonwealth (1649-1653). 

Charles II. in Scotland 182 

1650 Battle of Dunbar 183 

1651 Battle of Worcester 183 

1653 The " Rump " expelled 186 

Barebone's Parliament 186 

1653 The Instrument of Government ......... 186 



xxii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Protectorate (1653-1659). 
Date. Page 

Oliver, Lord Protector 188 

1655 The Major-Generals 189 

War with the Dutch 189 

1657 The Petition and Advice 190 

1658 Death of Cromwell 192 

1660 The Restoration 193 

Puritan Ideas 194 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
The Restored Stuarts (1660-1688). 

1660-85 Charles II 196 

1660 Act of Indemnity and Oblivion 198 

The Regicides 198 

1661-79 The Cavalier Parliament 199 

1661 Corporation Act 199 

1665 The Plague 200 

The Dissenters 200 

1666 The Great Fire 201 

1666-67 War with the Dutch 202 

1670 The Secret Treaty of Dover 203 

1672 Declaration of Indulgence 204 

1673 The Test Act 204 

1678 Popish Plot 205 

1679 Habeas Corpus Act 206 

1680-81 Exclusion Bills 207 

1683 Rye-House Plot 207 

1685-88 James II 208 

1685 Monmouth's Rebellion 208 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

The "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-1689. 

The Case of Sir Edward Hales 210 

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 210 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxiii 
Date. Page 

1688 Declaration of Indulgence 211 

Birth of the Old Pretender 212 

1688 The Seven Bishops acquitted 212 

The Invitation to William of Orange 213 

N i°688 5 ' \ William lands at Torba y 213 

Flight of James . . . . 214 

The Jacobites 214 

The Convention . 215 

1689 Declaration of Right 215 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The First Constitutional Monarchs. 

1689-1702 William and Mary . , 216 

The Mutiny Bill 216 

The Nonjurors 217 

1689 Siege of Londonderry 218 

1690 Battle of the Boyne 219 

1690 Battle off Beachy Head 220 

1692 Battle of La Hogue 221 

1694 Bank of England established 221 

1695 Liberty of the Press . 222 

1692 Massacre of Glencoe 222 

1702-14 Queen Anne 224 

1704 Battle of Blenheim 224 

1704 Seizure of Gibraltar 226 

1707 Union with Scotland 227 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

George I. (17 14-1727). 

1701 Act of Succession, or Settlement ....<»... 229 

1715 Jacobite Plot 230 

1715 Riot Act -230 

1716 Septennial Act 230 

1720 South-Sea Bubble . . . 230 

1721-42 Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister 232 

Walpole's Policy 233 



XXIV CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

George II. (1727-1760). 

Date. Page 

Queen Caroline 2^4 

The Methodists 2 , 4 

1739 War w i tn Spain 234 

War with Prussia and France 236 

1744-54 Pelham Ministry 236 

1745 Stuart Rising 236 

1746 Battle of Culloden 238 

1751 New Style adopted 239 

1 754-63 Causes of the French and Indian War in America . . 240 

I75 6_6 3 Tne Seven Years' War in Europe 240 

William Pitt 242 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

George III. (1760-1820) : part i. (1760-1783). 

Character of the New King 244 

1763 Peace of Paris 245 

John Wilkes 246 

The North American Colonies , 248 

1765 The Stamp Act 249 

1765 The Regency Question 249 

1766 Stamp Act repealed . . 250 

" The King's Friends "... 251 

1768 Wilkes and the Middlesex Election 251 

1773 The Boston Tea Party 253 

1774 The Boston Port Act and other Oppressive Measures . 254 

1775 Lexington and Concord 254 

1776 The Declaration of Independence . 255 

1776 The Surprise at Trenton 255 

1777 Burgoyne's Surrender 256 

1778 The French Alliance 257 

Lord North's Plan of Reconciliation 257 

Economical Reform 258 

1780 Lord George Gordon Riots .......... 258 

The Southern Campaigns ........... 259 

1780 Arnold's Treason ...... . ...... . 260 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXV 

Date. Page 

1781 Capture of Yorktown 261 

1782 End of the North Ministry 261 

1782 The Second Rockingham Ministry 262 

1782 Independence of the United States acknowledged . . 264 

1783 Conclusion of the War 265 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 
George III. Part ii. (1783-1820). 

1783 The "Coalition" 266 

1783 Fox's India Bill 266 

1783-1801 William Pitt, Prime Minister 267 

1784 Pitt's India Bill 268 

Pitt's financial policy 269 

1788 Trial of Warren Hastings begins 269 

1788 The Regency Struggle 269 

1789 The French Revolution . 271 

1793 France declares War against England 271 

Pitt's Policy 272 

1797 Mutinies in the Fleet 272 

1798 French invasion of Egypt 272 

1798 Battle of the Nile 273 

Ireland in the Eighteenth Century 273 

1779 The " Volunteers " . .' 273 

1791 The " United Irishmen " 274 

1796-98 Rebellion in Ireland 274 

1801 The Union 275 

1803 Emmett's Rebellion 275 

1801-4 The Addington Ministry 275 

1802 Peace of Amiens 276 

1803 War renewed 276 

1805 Battle off Trafalgar 276 

1803-6 Pitt's Second Ministry 277 

1806-7 Ministry of "All the Talents" 277 

1807-27 The Tory Ministry 277 

The Spanish Resistance to Napoleon 279 

1809-14 The Peninsular War 279 

Napoleon's Downfall 281 

War of 181 2 with the United States 281 

1815 Battle of Waterloo 282 

Agricultural Distress 283 



XXVI 



Date. 



1819 
1819 

1810-20 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page 

Corn Law of 1816 283 

Commercial Depression 283 

The Luddites „ 283 

The Manchester Massacre 284 

The Six Acts 285 

The Regency 286 



1828-30 
1829 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

George IV. (1820-1830). 

Queen Caroline 286 

George Canning and the Monroe Doctrine 287 

Wellington-Peel Ministry 287 

Daniel O'Connell 288 

Catholic Emancipation ............ 289 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

William IV. (1830-1837). 

Character of the new King „ . . 291 

Causes of Discontent 291 

1830-34 The Grey Ministry 293 

1830-32 The Struggle for Reform 293 

1832 The First Reform Act 294 

1833 Emancipation of Slaves 295 

1833 The Factory Act 295 

1834 Reform of the Poor Law 296 

r ^34 _ 35 Peel-Wellington Ministry 296 

1835-41 Second Melbourne Ministry 296 



1840 

1839 
1841-46 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Victoria (1837- ). 

Difficulties of the Ministry 297 

The Canada Act 299 

The Bedchamber Question 300 

Sir Robert Peel's Ministry 300 

Overthrow of the Protective Policy 301 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXV11 

Date. Page 

The Anti-Corn-Law League 302 

1844-49 The Irish Famine 303 

1846 Repeal of the Corn Laws 303 

1846-52 Lord John Russell's Ministry 305 

" Young Ireland " 306 

The " Clearances " 306 

The Chartists 306 

1851 Dismissal of Lord Palmerston 307 

1852 The First Derby Ministry 308 

1852-55 The Aberdeen Ministry 308 

1854-56 The Crimean War 308 

1855—58 First Palmerston Ministry 309 

J857-58 The Sepoy Mutiny 309 

1858-59 Second Derby-Disraeli Ministry 311 

1858 Jews admitted to Parliament 311 

1859 The " Fancy Franchises " 311 

1859-65 Second Palmerston Ministry 312 

,_i\ Gladstone's Financial Policy 313 

The Cotton Famine 313 

Js. England's Policy during the Civil War 314 

The "Alabama" 314 

1865-68 Derby-Disraeli Ministry 315 

1868 The Second Reform Act 315 

1868 Compulsory Church Rates abolished 315 

1868-74 First Gladstone Ministry 316 

1869 Disestablishment of the Irish Church 316 

The System of Landholding in Ireland 316 

1870 The Irish Land Act of 1870 3 10 - 

The " Bright Clauses " 3 20 

1881 Irish Land Act of 1881 3 2 ° 

187 1 National Education 3 2 ° 

187 1 Reorganization of the Army • 320 

1872 The Ballot Act 3 21 

1884 Third Reform Act 3 21 

1874-80 The Disraeli Ministry 3 22 

^ Disraeli's Imperial Policy 3 22 

1876 Congress of Berlin 3 2 4 

1880 Mr. Gladstone's Second Ministry begins 324 

The British Empire 3 2 5 

Conclusion 3 2 5 

INDEX 3 2 7 



XXVlll GENEALOGIES. — MAPS. 



GENEALOGIES. 

Page 

The Norman Kings 31 

Succession to the Scottish Throne in 1290 51 

Succession to the French Crown in 1328 59 

The Later Plantagenets 71 

Claims of York and Lancaster 81 

Lancasters and Tudors 89 

The Howards 102 

The Tudors no 

The Stuarts 143 

The House of Hanover 242 



MAPS. 



At the beginning: 

1. Britain before the Norman Conquest. 

2. The Dominions of Henry II. 

At the end : 

3. England at the .beginning of the Puritan Rebellion. 

4. England since the Restoration. 



Folding Maps, after the Index. 

rrn ,„ , ' '•' ' [ showing growth of the British Empire. 
The World, 1892. ) 



IMPORTANT DATES. XXIX 



IMPORTANT DATES. 

Year 

Cassar in Britain B. c. 55 

Coming of the Jutes A. D. 449 

Egbert of Wessex, Overlord of all England 827 

Treaty of Wedmore 878 

Battle of Senlac 1066 

Murder of Becket 11 70 

Magna Charta 1215 

Simon of Montfort's Parliament , . . 1264 

Confirmation of the Charters 1297 

Battle of Bannockburn 1314 

Battle of Cressy 1346 

Peace of Bretigny 1360 

Battle of Agincourt 141 5 

Battle of Bosworth 1485 

First Act of Supremacy . 1534 

Defeat of the Spanish Armada 1588 

Petition of Right 1628 

Battle of Naseby 1645 

Battle of Worcester 1651 

The Restoration 1660 

Bill of Rights 1689 

Act of Settlement 1701 

Union with Scotland 1707 

Battle of Blenheim 1704 

Peace of Paris 1763 

Declaration of American Independence 1776 

Union with Ireland 1801 

Battle of Trafalgar 1805 

Battle of Waterloo 1815 

Catholic Emancipation 1829 

First Reform Act 1832 

Overthrow of Protection 1845-46 

Second Reform Act 1868 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church 1869 

First Irish Land Act 1870 

Elementary Education Act 1870 

Ballot Act 1872 

Second Irish Land Act 1881 

Third Reform Act 1884 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

View of Stonehenge ......... 5 

Views of Parts of the Roman Wall 8, 9 

Saxon Horsemen . ... 16 

Rural Life (Eleventh Century) , 20, 21 

An English Vessel 22 

Silver Penny (time of William I.) ........... . 29 

Seal, showing Mounted Armed Figure (time of Henry I.) . . . . 34 

Effigies of Henry II. and Queen Eleanor 38 

Silver Penny (time of John) 40 

Royal Arms of England (Richard I. to Edward III.) 45 

Effigy of a Knight, showing Armor worn between 1 190-1225 ... 47 

Seal, showing Mounted Knight in Mail Armor (about 1265) ... 48 

Armed Knights (about 1300) 56 

State Carriage (Fourteenth Century) 58 

Contemporary View of a Walled Town (Fourteenth Century) . . 61 

Tomb of Edward III. in Westminster Abbey 64 

Rural Life (Fourteenth Century) 69, 70 

Gold Noble (time of Edward III.) : from the Luttrell Psalter, 

" Vetusta Monumenta " . 72 

Geoffrey Chaucer {from Harl. MS. 4866) 76 

Effigy of Knight in Plate-armor (about 1460) 79 

Royal Arms (1408-1603) 85 

A Fifteenth-Century Ship 90 

Tudor Rose 97 

Henry VIII 99 

Sir Thomas More 105 

Angel of Henry VIII. (1543) 113 

Queen Mary Tudor 115 

Mounted Soldier (1596) . . . . 118 

Queen Elizabeth (1588) 120 

William Shakspere . . . .- 122 

Mary, Queen of Scots 127 

Sir Francis Drake 133 

William Cecil, Lord Burleigh 138 



xxxil LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

Coaches in the Reign of Elizabeth 141 

Sir Walter Raleigh 145 

James 1 150 

Charles 1 155 

The " Sovereign of the Seas " (1637) 161 

Coach (Seventeenth Century) 169 

Military Equipment (Seventeenth Century) 171 

Oliver Cromwell 174 

John Miiton 185 

Wagon (Seventeenth Century) 187 

Charles II 197 

Yeomen of the Guard (Seventeenth Century) 209 

William III 218 

Mary II 219 

Queen Anne 225 

Royal Arms (1603-1714) 228 

George 1 231 

Costumes and Sedan Chair (about 1720) 233 

Sir Robert Walpole 235 

George II 237 

William Pitt (afterwards Earl of Chatham) 241 

Coach (about 1700) 243 

George III. (in 1767) 245 

The House of Commons in 1741-4 2 2 47 

Costumes of Persons of Quality (about 1783) 260 

Edmund Burke 263 

Royal Arms (1801-1816) 265 

William Pitt 268 

Headdress of a Lady (about 1778) .270 

Lord Nelson 278 

The Duke of Wellington 280 

George III. in old age 284 

George Canning 288 

Royal Arms (1816-1837) 290 

Old Sarum 292 

Queen Victoria 298 

Sir Robert Peel • • $ 3°4 

Lord John Russell 3 12 

Mr. Gladstone 3 l8 

Lord Beaconsfield ■ • 3 2 3 



ENGLISH HISTORY 



FOR 



AMERICAN READERS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY BRITAIN. 

OFF the western coast of Europe there are two 
large islands. One of these is a little larger 
than are the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania united, 
and the other is almost as large as the State of Continu- 
Indiana. Two thousand years ago these islands English 
were mentioned by an old Greek author, Poly- American 
bius, as "the two Britannic islands of Albion history. 
and Ierne;" and they are now known to us as Great 
Britain and Ireland. Small as they are, their history 
is of more importance to Americans than that of all 
Europe besides; for the ancestors of the majority of 
Americans came from these islands, and thence came 
many, if not all, of our most important institutions. 
Indeed, the history of these islands until within two 
centuries and a half is a part of American history; 
without it we cannot understand our own institutions, 
or trace the history of our ancestors. 

Who were the earliest inhabitants of these islands ? 
How did they live? What did they eat and drink, 



2 EARLY BRITAIN. 

and what kind of clothes did they wear? These ques- 
tions cannot be answered with certainty, for 

inhabit- the very first inhabitants of Albion and Ierne 
lived before the period of written history. Let 

us begin at the beginning, and see what is really 

known about them. 

In many parts of the larger of these two islands there 

are still to be seen a great many small, roundish hills, 
commonly called barrows. They were made by 

Barrows. , , , , 

human hands, and graves have been found in 
the middle of some of them. When these graves were 
first opened, they were found to contain bones, not 
only of men, but of animals. Tools of stone and 
bronze were found in them, and also in the earth 
around them. In other cases everything but the stone 
graves had crumbled away and disappeared ; and when 
the graves are thus empty and uncovered, they are 
usually called cromlechs. Until lately the cromlechs 
were supposed to be altars, on which human beings 
were sacrificed; but they are now known to be only 
graves. 

The human bones found in these graves were evi- 
dently those of the early residents of Britain; so they 

have been carefully measured and examined. 
British It is found that they belonged to two different 

races, who can only be known apart as being 
the people with long, narrow heads, and those with 
short, round heads. The long-headed people appear 

to have been the older race, and the more 

Long- 
headed ignorant. They were a good deal like the Es- 
kimo, or Esquimaux, of the present day. They 
lived in caves, and in villages built over shallow water. 
They used stone tools, and ate the flesh of wild beasts; 



THE GAELS. 3 

but they had tame animals also, for the bones of the 
ox, the horse, and even the goose, have been found in 
the graves. It is not known who these long-headed 
people were ; but they have been thought to belong to 
a race called Iberian, or perhaps Ivernian, who were 
the early occupants of the peninsula of Spain, and 
also of Ireland, or Ierne. 

The people with the round heads came at a later 
day, although long before the time of written history. 
They were larger, stronger, and less barbarous 
than the race just described. This is shown by headed 
the fact that they used bronze tools; for bronze peope 
is a mixture of copper and tin, and it cannot be made 
without some skill. They made earthen pots also, 
wove a rough kind of cloth, and built their villages 
over deeper waters than the others. They were per- 
haps of the Finnish race, which still occupies the 
northernmost part of Europe, although some regard 
them as Celts, or Kelts. 

At any rate, we know that men of Celtic, or Keltic, 
blood lived in Britain at the beginning of written his- 
tory, and they are the first British men of whom The 
we know much. Men of the same race still live Gaels# 
in France, especially in Brittany, in Spain, and in 
Northern Italy. Of those who came to Britain, the 
tribes of whom we know most were the Goidels, or 
Gaels, and the Brythons, or Britons. The Goidels came 
first, and then passed over into Ireland, where the 
western Irish are probably their descendants. Some 
of them passed over into Scotland, where the Scottish 
Highlanders are supposed to be sprung from them, 
and still speak a language called Gaelic. On the 
other hand, the Brythons came to the southern part of 



4 EARLY BRITAIN. 

Great Britain, and the Welsh are their particular de- 
scendants. Their old neighbors on the continent of 
Europe gave them this name of Brythons, meaning 
either clothed men or painted men; but they called 
themselves Cymry, and their descendants, the Welsh, 
call themselves by that name to this day. 

We know more about these early Britons than about 
any of the other early races, because the Romans, 
The who afterwards conquered them, have told us a 
Britons. g reat deal about them in their books. They 
lived in huts shaped like beehives, made of planks, 
and covered with basket-work and mud. The only 
ornaments of these huts were the heads of the 

Their 

mode of owner's enemies; and this shows what a savage 
race they were. The heads that were thought 
most valuable were kept in boxes, and were brought 
forth only on great occasions. In this they were no 
better than the wild tribes called head-hunters, who 
are still to be found in the island of Borneo. The 
Britons were a tall and well-formed race. They were 
dressed in skins and in woven cloth, this last being 
dyed in gaudy colors. The men allowed their mous- 
taches to grow so long that they strained what they 
drank through them as through a sieve. They were 
good farmers, and raised large crops of grain. Cattle 
and sheep abounded among them, and they had little 
horses, or ponies, which, when too old to labor, were 
killed and eaten like other animals. The Britons 
were brave, and fought chiefly from chariots drawn by 
three horses. When going to war, a soldier colored 
his hair bright red, and painted streaks of blue and 
green on his face and legs, like the American Indian. 
When the Romans afterwards conquered Britain, the 



STONEHENGE. 5 

race which they overcame was really not much more 
civilized than the Mandans or Choctaws or Apaches 
of America. 

The religion of these early Britons was called Druid- 
ism, and their priests were called Druids. They wor- 




VIEW OF STONEHENGE. (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH. 



Religion. 



shipped several deities, and offered human sacrifices to 
them. They held oak groves sacred, and particu- 
larly the mistletoe that hung from the boughs. 
There are in England several great buildings, or struc- 
tures of stone resembling buildings, which are Stone . 
supposed to have been built in the time of the hen § e - 
Druids, though no one can fix the date. As the trav- 
eller goes out from the city of Salisbury over a bare 
undulating plain, like one of the rolling prairies of the 



6 EARLY BRITAIN. 

West, he sees at a distance a vast gray structure made 
of huge stones now fallen apart. This is called Stone- 
henge. The largest upright stones are nearly thirty 
feet long, and hold up cross-pieces that are sixteen feet 
long and weigh eleven tons. How these great stones 
were brought or shaped and raised to such a height with 
the imperfect tools and machinery of a barbarous age, 
is very puzzling; but there is no way of learning exactly 
when Stonehenge was built, or another structure of 
the same kind at Abury. But we have every reason to 
believe that the people who built them were ancestors 
of our own; for the island of Albion, or Great Britain, 
has been conquered so many times that there is a great 
mixture of race in all English-speaking people. Ibe- 
rian and Finn, Gael and Briton, all mingle their blood 
in our veins; and so do other races yet to be men- 
tioned, such as Angle and Saxon, Dane and Nor- 
man. But it is a curious thing that our institutions 
and laws are mainly based on those of the Angles and 
Saxons. 

At a time when Britain was in an almost barbarous 
condition, the southern portions of Europe were much 
Early more civilized, and we know something of the 
visitors. ear ]y state of Britain through the writings and 
traditions of these more advanced races. For instance, 
an early Greek explorer named Pytheas is supposed to 
have visited the island, and the Phoenicians at Carth- 
age used tin that probably came from British mines, 
and they knew something about the Britons. Yet the 
route of Pytheas is not easy to make out, and the 
Phoenicians may, after all, have obtained their tin and 
their information from Gaul or Spain. But as to the 
Roman knowledge of Britain, we are on surer ground. 



a.d. 84.] THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 7 

We know that, fifty-five years before the birth of Jesus 
Christ, the great Roman general, Julius Caesar, 
crossed over to Britain, he being then governor Britain. 
of Gaul. The next year he came again, and ' ° 
marched over part of the southeastern portion of the 
island. He did not stay long; but his coming was of 
great importance, for he made the island known to the 
Romans, who were then the great conquering race of 
Europe. A century later these mighty conquerors 
came again and subdued Britain itself, making it a 
province of the Roman Empire. This took place 
under the Emperor Claudius (43 a. d.). The Roman 
Britons were brave and warlike, but they were ^ t 
no match for the disciplined Roman soldiers. ( AD -43>- 
The chief who made the bravest resistance was Caradoc, 
or Caractacus ; and he was at last captured and sent to 
Rome, where the emperor was so pleased with his 
frank and open manner that he set him free. But the 
Romans in Britain were not so kind as was this emperor. 
They oppressed the Britons terribly, and even tortured 
them to obtain money from them. At last this could 
be borne no longer, and there was a rebellion under a 
brave chief named Boadicea, a woman. The Britons 
took and plundered the Roman town of Londinium 
(London) ; but they were defeated at last, and Boadicea 
is said to have taken her own life in her despair. 

After this the Romans went on from one conquest 
to another. In the time of the Emperor Agricola 
(a.d. 78-84), all Britain, as far north as the Clyde R oman 
and the Firth of Forth, was in their hands. At walls - 
that point the island is very narrow, and Agricola 
caused a wall to be built across it, to aid in keeping 
back the wild Highland tribes called Scots and Picts, 



8 EARLY BRITAIN. [84. 

who made constant raids upon the country. Fifty 
years later these bold mountaineers pressed the 
Romans so hard that the Emperor Hadrian caused 
another wall to be built, much farther south, between 
the Tyne and Solway Firth. Later still, the Emperor 




VIEW OF PART OF THE ROMAN WALL. 

Severus rebuilt this wall, and a part of it is still stand- 
ing, although much has been taken away to mend the 
roads. While the Scots and Picts thus troubled the 
Romans by land, the sea-fighters, or vikings, also at- 
tacked them by water ; and to meet these the Romans 
built great roads, so that soldiers could be hurried from 
one part of the island to another. Some of these 
roads can still be traced ; and all over England there 
yet remain ruined walls and fragments of tiled floors 
to show where the towns and camps of the Roman con- 
querors of Britain were built. 

The Romans, having become Christian, introduced 
Christianity into Britain, and in this way the Britons 



4io.] 



ROMAN ARMY WITHDRAWN. 



became Christians. But soon the Roman power de- 
clined. In a.d. 410, Rome was taken by the West 
Goths under their chief, Alaric, and in the same Roman 
year the Roman legions were withdrawn from ar . m y 

J ° with- 

Britain. This strong arm being gone, the drawn 



Britons had to defend themselves from Scots 



(410). 



and Picts and other invaders, 
succeeded very ill. 



a task in which they 




PART OF THE ROMAN WALL AT LEICESTER. 



IO HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. [449. 



CHAPTER II. 

HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. 
A. D. 449-827. 

BY the seaside, in winter, we may sometimes see 
a floating log or plank on which a little flock of 
sea-fowl has perched. Then comes another flock, and 
another, all ready to alight, and each flock must either 
make room for the next, or be driven away. The early 
history of the island of Britain is very much like this. 
One flock of invaders after another settled upon it, 
each having a name of its own, but all belonging in 
general to the great Germanic, or Teutonic, race, which 
spread all over northern Europe. The modern Ger- 
mans, Dutch, and Danes all belong to this race, and 
so did the successive flocks of invaders who came to 
Britain. 

There were the Jutes, for instance, from whom the 
peninsula of Jutland is still named. They landed 
Coming about 449 on the southeast coast of Britain, 
jutes 6 anc * soon overran all that part of the island. 
(449)- It used to be said that they were led by two 
brothers, named Hengist and Horsa, whom a British 
chief, named Vortigern, had asked to help him against 
his enemies. But it is now thought that this whole 
story may be false, and that Hengist and Horsa mean 
only horse and mare. Yet it is certain that the Jutes 
themselves came, and brought with them their families, 



520.] THE SAXONS. II 

slaves, and cattle. The Romans had called the south- 
eastern part of Britain Cantium, and the Jutes changed 
the name to Kent, — a name it still bears. They 
called themselves Kentsmen, and named their chief 
town Kentsmen' s borough, or Canterbury, as it is 
now spelled. This is interesting to Americans, be- 
cause a large part of those who first settled this con- 
tinent came from this county of Kent, and kept up its 
way of speaking and its institutions. 

The next flock of invaders, also belonging to the 
great Teutonic race, were of the Saxon tribe, and set- 
tled upon the land south and west of Kent, The 
calling this region Sussex, or the land of the Saxons - 
South Saxons, — a name it holds to this day. Then 
another band of Saxons settled to the west of Sussex, 
and called that region Wessex. They are said to have 
fought many battles with the British king Arthur, 
about whom there are so many legends and poems, — 
he that founded the Round Table of famous knights, 
who went in search of the Holy Grail. The poet 
Tennyson, in our own time, has written much about 
King Arthur, but it is now believed that he existed 
only in poetry, as none of the early historical writers 
even mention his name. But the leader of these 
Saxons of Wessex was a real person, named Cedric, 
who was the ancestor of most of the later sovereigns 
of England, including the present queen. Cedric' s 
settlement of Wessex was the most important Saxon 
colony. Other Saxons settled in the eastern part of 
England, calling their part of the country Essex, while 
others settled between these tribes and called that 
region Middlesex. These two names yet belong to 
English counties, though the name of Wessex is lost. 



12 HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. [600. 

Then other Teutonic invaders settled in the central 
and northern parts of Britain. These were called 
The Angles, or English, so that we now see whence 
English. came the wor ds " English " and " Anglo-Saxon. " 
They settled north of Essex, and gradually got to the 
borders of Wales. The old English word for border 
is "march;" so these English were called "march- \ 
men," and their country was called "Mercia." Other 
Angles also settled north of the river Humber, and 
were finally united in a large kingdom, called North- 
umbria. They gradually spread yet farther north, and 
founded a city named Edwin' s-borough, or Edinburgh, 
after a King Edwin of Northumbria, who lived in the 
seventh century. Thus the Angles, or English, gradu- 
ally got possession of the greater part of the island, 
and it came to be called Angleland, or England. 

What became of the early British tribes we do not 
know, although it is very likely that the present in- 
Treat- habitants of Wales and Cornwall are mainly de- 
rrient of scenc [ ec i f rom them. Some writers, too, think 
Britons, fast ^ Q presence of so many dark-haired Eng- 
lishmen shows that the slaughter of the Britons was 
not so complete as many historians have thought. For 
the English, Danes, and Normans belonged to the 
Teutonic race, and had light hair, while we know that 
the early Britons had dark hair. At any rate, there 
are hardly any British words in our present language, 
but there are many Latin words, and some of these 
may have come from the Britons, who probably spoke 
a dialect of Latin after the Romans conquered them. 
And our customs, like our language, came mainly 
from the Teutonic tribes, who, one after another, pos- 
sessed England, and whom we must now call English. 



827.] ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS. 1 3 

But we must not forget that these old tribes, from 
whom most of us are descended, were not only almost 
savages, but they were pagans ; that is, wor- Rd . .^ 
shippers of many gods. What little of Chris- of the 
tianity had been planted in the island by the ngls 
Romans had disappeared, and the new tenants of Eng- 
land worshipped various gods, the chief of whom was 
Wodin, or Odin. Next to him was Thor, or Thunder. 
To this god the horse was sacred, and the English 
held feasts of horseflesh in his honor. After they 
had been converted to Christianity they gave up these 
feasts altogether; and this change of habits has been 
thought to be the reason why we do not eat horseflesh, 
as is done by some races. To this day we keep the 
names of Wodin and Thor in our Wednesday and Thurs- 
day ; and this is why our Puritan ancestors in England 
and America refused to use these names, which they 
thought heathen, and why they preferred to name the 
days of the week by simple numbers, — First Day, 
Second Day, and so on, — as the Quakers, or Friends, 
now do. But as all these early English kings claimed 
to be descended from Wodin, they thought it very 
proper to call one day in the week by his name. 

All these English tribes kept up the customs of their 
Teutonic forefathers ; and it is thus that those customs 
have been handed down to Americans. To be- 

Enghsh 

gin with, each tribe, as it settled down on its institu- 
part of the conquered territory, divided most 
of the arable land among its members according to 
the old Teutonic method, — a portion to each family. 
Several families living near together formed a town- 
ship, and the affairs of the township were arranged at 
a meeting of the male freeholders, or freemen, of the 



14 HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. [600. 

township. After Christianity was introduced, this 
"town-moot," or "town-meeting," took charge of the 
The religious affairs too, and did this under the 
township. nameof « parish » The English parish-meet- 
ing, or "vestry," of our own time is the survival of 
this organization; and so, probably, is the town- 
meeting of the New England States. 

Several townships, enough to furnish a hundred or 
so of warriors, formed what was called "The Hundred." 
The The hundred had its own meeting, at which 
hundred, fae town priest and reeve, with four more men 
from each township, were present. This organization 
of the hundred is still preserved in some States of the 
American Union. Then, as time went on, and there 
came to be but one king in all England, the little 
The kingdoms of former days became shires, or coun- 
county. t j es> The affairs of a county were conducted 
at an assembly over which an officer called the ealdor- 
man (alderman) presided. 

The land was not all divided among separate owners. 

According to some writers a part of it was always 

reserved, to be given by the lords at some future 

The land. . ' , , , . , 

time to those who deserved it, or to be let to 
those who had no right to a portion of free land, and 
who had to put themselves under the protection of some 
strong man. According to other writers, most of the 
land was owned by the community in common. More- 
over, many of the people were thralls, or slaves, some of 
these having sold themselves into slavery because they 
were poor, or having been fined for some offence, and 
having been unable to pay the fine. All who have read 
Scott's novel of "Ivanhoe" will remember Gurth and 
Wamba, who were slaves, and actually wore collars 



827.] CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 1 5 

around their necks; although Scott must not be too 
closely followed, as it is said that there is some his- 
torical error in almost every page of " Ivanhoe. " 

Besides these various classes of freemen, dependants, 
and slaves, there were the fighting men, or thanes, who 
followed the fortunes of their chief, or king, and The 
were often rewarded by a gift of land or by a thanes - 
title of nobility. Where these thanes, or nobles, were 
powerful, the poorer and weaker were glad to come 
under their authority and have their protection; and 
thus the simple early Teutonic institutions went 
through a change, and became more like what was 
called "feudalism" in the rest of Europe. This 
change was seen, for instance, in the growth The 
of the Witenagemot, or meeting of the Wise meeting 
Men (Witan). This was a body of great power, wise 
and took in some degree the place of a legis- 
lature or congress. It elected the king, sometimes 
passing over the older heir, and choosing some other 
member of the ruling family. It also appointed the 
officers of state, and decided questions of peace and 
war. At first the freemen had the right to attend its 
meetings ; but the attendance was gradually composed 
of the leading officials and nobles. 

For many years the English still remained pagan, 
worshipping the old Saxon gods ; but just before the end 
of the sixth century a monk named Augustine conver- 
visited it. Fortunately for him, the king of ^ is t0 
Kent, named Ethelbert, had married a Chris- tianity. 
tian wife, daughter of the king of the Franks, so 
Augustine was allowed to land. Between his wife's 
persuasions and those of this monk, Ethelbert be- 
came a Christian, and allowed Augustine to live at 



1 6 HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. [827. 

Canterbury, where the head of the Church of England 
has ever since had a palace, his title being that 
of Archbishop of Canterbury. Then Edwin, king of 
Northumbria, the most powerful of the various Eng- 
lish kings, married a daughter of Ethelbert, and was 
also converted ; and by degrees all the other kings and 
their people became Christian. And what was almost 
as important, before long the English Church became 
a portion of the Roman Catholic Church, to which the 
leading nations of western Europe also belonged. 
In this way England was brought again under the 
influences of civilization. 

During all this time no English king succeeded in 

really uniting all England, though by 827 Egbert of 

En i nd Wessex was recognized by all Englishmen liv- 

united ing south of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth 

as their ruler, or "over-lord." 




SAXON HORSEMEN (HARL. MS. 603). 



827.] THE VIKINGS. 1 7 



CHAPTER III. 

THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND. 
827-1042. 

IN those days there were certain sea-rovers, called 
vikings, who used to land upon the coasts of England 
and France, and often took possession of the The 
land and held it. The word "vikings" does vikin s s - 
not mean that they were kings, but that they dwelt on 
a vik, or bay. They came in long boats with high 
prows, often bearing the head of a dragon or some other 
animal. There were sometimes fifty rowers, whose 
shields were hung over the sides of the boat ; and when 
the boat was upset in a sea-fight, the men would escape 
their enemies by swimming, with their heads under 
their floating shields. These sea-rovers were called 
Northmen, or Norsemen, so that when they took pos- 
session of a part of the coast of France it was named 
Normandy, and has held that name ever since. Some 
of these same Northmen afterwards made their way to 
Iceland, and thence, it is believed, to America. But 
the sea-rovers who invaded England were from Den- 
mark, and came from the same part of Europe as the 
Jutes, who had landed in England before. They spoke 
a Teutonic dialect, probably not differing much from 
that spoken in England at the time. 

The Danish sea-rovers landed first in Ireland, where 
the people had been converted to Christianity before 



1 8 THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND. [878. 

the English, but were still far from being civilized. 
The native tribes retreated before the warlike Danes 
The into the forests and wilds of the interior. Then 
smdKing tne Danes crossed to England, and overran 
Alfred. Northumbria and Mercia; but when they came 
to Wessex they met with some resistance from young 
king Alfred, Egbert's grandson. But he had to re- 
treat to the forest, and is said to have taken refuge 
with a cowherd, whose wife did not know he was a 
king, and set him to tending the cakes that she was 
baking before the fire. Coming in, she found that 
they were burning; and she said to him, according to 
an old ballad: — 

" There, don't you see the cakes on fire ? 
Then wherefore turn them not ? 
You 're glad enough to eat them 
When they are piping hot." 

At last he gathered men enough about him to leave 
his retreat and attack the Danes. They were taken 
Treaty wholly by surprise, and he drove them out of his 
mon; " kingdom of Wessex; but he could not drive 
(878). them out of England, and he had to let them 
remain, on condition of acknowledging him as their 
superior, or "over-lord." They thus ruled over the 
northern part of England ; but we cannot trace many of 
our institutions to them, although the names of many 
English towns are Danish, as those of Whitby and 
Derby. 

Although Alfred could not get rid of the Danes, he 
was the best and greatest of these early English chiefs, 
Alfred's or kings. He brought together the laws and 
men?. 11 customs of the nation into a kind of code. He 
encouraged learning by translating books from other 



988.] CNUT THE DANE. 1 9 

languages into English, and above all he built a navy, 
and brought England more into connection with the 
outer world. Under his son, Edward the Elder, and 
his successors, the work of Alfred was completed ; so 
that, by the middle of the tenth century, the Danes 
were conquered, and even the Scots and Welsh acknowl- 
edged the authority of the English king. 

Edward died in 925, and the next fifty years were 
years of comparative peace and quiet. The ablest 
man of the period was Dunstan, a monk, after- saint 
wards known as Saint Dunstan, who became Dunstan - 
Archbishop of Canterbury. Under his wise guidance 
the Danes put away their wild habits, and became like 
Englishmen, and the Scottish king became a subject 
of the king of England, taking some of the northern 
part of England for his own, and having the old Eng- 
lish town of Edinburgh for his seat of government. 
Dunstan died in 988. Even before his death another 
horde of Danes came, this time determined to conquer 
England and rule it themselves. The English king, 
Ethelred "the Unready," or "Without Counsel," fool- 
ishly gave the Danes money to go away. Of course 
they came back the next year in still greater numbers. 
Their leader was their king, Swend, or Swegen, Fork- 
beard, who became king of England ; and when Cnut the 
he died, his son Cnut, or Canute, was kins: after f! ane ', 

king of 

him, although Edmund Ironside, the brave son England. 
of Ethelred the Unready, divided England with Cnut 
for a time. 

Cnut was a man of much force and energy. He 
succeeded to all Ethelred' s possessions, and at last 
even married his widow ; so that he no longer seemed 
a stranger to the people. He was not only king of 



20 



THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND. 




RURAL LIFE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 



21 




22 THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND. [1042. 

England, but of Denmark, of a part of Sweden, and 
at last of Norway. He divided England into four 
The earl- earldoms, giving each to an earl, of whom the 
doms. ablest was Earl Godwin of Wessex. The best 
remembered story of Cnut is that of his ordering the 
sea to obey him ; and it is told by an old monk named 
Henry of Huntingdon. One day, as the story goes, 
Cnut sat down in a chair upon the beach below high- 
water mark, and bade the tide stop rising. " O sea, 
I am thy lord. My ships sail over thee whither I will, 
and this land against which thou breakest is mine. 
Stay thou thy waves, and dare not to wet the feet of 
thy lord and master. " But the tide kept on, and wet 
the royal feet before they could get out of the way; 
and it is said that he was so humbled as never to wear 
Cnut's his crown again. In fact, his children did not 
sons. wear it long either. His sons died without 
children, and the "Wise Men" gave the crown to 
Ethelred's son, Edward. 




AN ENGLISH VESSEL (HARL. MS. 603). 



1042.] HAROLD CHOSEN KING. 23 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
IO42-I087. 

THE new king's early years had been spent in Nor- 
mandy, and he was more Norman than English 
in his feelings. He liked to have his Norman friends 
around him, and gave them important offices, even 
making one of them Archbishop of Canterbury. This 
was bitterly opposed by a large party of the English, 
headed by Earl Godwin. This led to constant quarrels, 
and when the great earl died, and his' son Harold suc- 
ceeded him as Earl of Wessex, Harold really became 
more powerful than the king. Then the king himself 
died, and his influence became greater after his death 
than in his lifetime. Remembering his mild rule, so 
different from the oppressions that came later, men 
called him "Edward the Confessor," or "Saint." He 
was buried in the great Church or West Minster, 
which was completed before his death, and which is 
now called by the same name, Westminster Abbey, 
although of Edward's original building only the bases 
of a few columns remain. 

Edward the Confessor was the last of the direct de- 
scendants of Cedric the Saxon; and the day TT ,, 

' " J Harold 

after his death the "Wise Men" met and chose chosen 
his young rival, Harold, to be king of England, 
Edward himself having recommended this. But the 



24 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. [1066. 

new king had little peace. William, Duke of Nor- 
mandy, had hoped for the crown of England, and was 
furious when he heard of the "Wise Men's" choice; 
for he claimed that Harold had promised in the most 
solemn way to help him to become king of England. 
Indeed, it seems certain that Harold had promised to 
do something William wished, though probably only 
to marry William's daughter. Then another Harold, 
surnamed Hardrada, or "stern of counsel," resolved to 
invade England, and did so ; but his namesake defeated 
him utterly, Sept. 25, 1066. A few days later, while 
the English Harold was celebrating this victory, some 
one entered the room and said that Duke William of 
Normandy had landed, and had taken up his position 
near Hastings. Harold knew that the time for a deci- 
sive battle had come, and with all speed gathered his 
men, and marching southward, took up a strong posi- 
tion on the heights of Senlac, as the battle-field was 
afterwards called, seven miles from William's camp. 

Early the next morning the Normans prepared to 
storm the English fortification on the hill. It is said 
Battle of tnat William, as he was putting on his hauberk, 
Senlac, or or body armor, turned it the wrong way. His 

Hastings J >. & j 

(Oct. 14, men were alarmed, thinking it a bad omen; but 
William, with ready wit, claimed it as a good 
omen, for that day, he said, was to change a Norman 
duke into an English king. The fight was long and 
doubtful, Harold's position being very difficult of at- 
tack. At last William pretended to retreat. This 
drew a part of the English out of their stronghold, 
and the Normans turned upon them, defeated them, and 
again attacked the fort. They fought with bows and 
arrows, and an arrow pierced Harold to the brain. 



io66.] WILLIAM'S CLAIM TO THE ENGLISH CROWN. 25 

He fell mortally wounded, and William of Normandy 
became master of southern England. 

Who was this William of Normandy, and what right 
had he to claim the throne of England ? Long before, 
while King Alfred was fighting the Danes in wil]i 
England, another northern tribe under Rollo, or the Con - 

queror 

Rolf, was besieging Paris in France; and the (1066- 
French king, to get rid of Rolf, gave him the 
city of Rouen, and some land along the sea-coast, on 
condition that he should become a Christian, and should 
render service to the French king in time of war. 
The region first given to him was called the North- 
men's land; but as years went on, and the Northmen 
grew civilized, and adopted the French language, they 
called themselves Normans, and their land Normandy. 
Now, William, the Conqueror of England, was the 
descendant and successor of this Rolf, who had invaded 
France. 

As to his right to the throne of England, William 
always said that Edward the Confessor had promised 
it to him; but it was not Edward's to promise, Hisciaim 
and the "Wise Men" had, at any rate, chosen English 
Harold. William, however, referred the mat- crown - 
ter to the Pope of Rome, and by promising to bring 
the English Church into closer union with the Roman 
Catholic Church, he won the Pope's consent to his 
invasion. At Senlac he broke the strength of Eng- 
land; and though it took five years more to complete 
the conquest, yet the date of this battle is perhaps the 
most important in English history. To fix the memory 
of the event, the Conqueror built an abbey on the spot 
where Harold fell, and inscribed on it the names of the 
Norman knights who fought there. Only the founda- 



26 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. [1066. 

tion of the building now remains; but Americans and 
Englishmen still like to trace their " Norman blood " 
to those whose names are on the roll of Battle Abbey. 
The Norman Conquest was unlike any other con- 
quest of England, because it gave only a new set of 
Effect rulers, and left the laws and political institu- 
c n_ e tions to a large extent unchanged. Yet there 
quest. was a g rea t change in the ownership of the land, 
and it came about in this way. In the first place, 
William claimed that ever since Edward's death he 
had been the only lawful king in England. If this was 
true, then it followed that Harold had not been king 
at all; and from this it followed again that every one 
who had supported Harold, or had failed to support 
William, was a traitor. Now, it was the English law 
that the lands of traitors should be taken from them, 
and become the property of the king. Therefore, as 
nearly all Englishmen had been on Harold's side, or 
had opposed William's claim in some way, nearly all 
lost their lands, which the king gave to his favor- 
ites; and this, it must be remembered, not by mere 
right of conquest, but under the regular forms of 
English law. In other ways, too, the same thing took 
place; that is, the old forms were kept up, but were 
in the hands of different men. The English " Meeting 
of the Wise Men," for instance, was still continued, 
but only Normans came to it. However, within less 
than a hundred years the Normans themselves changed 
very much, becoming English in looks and manners, 
Continu- so tnat ft was really hard to tell from which 
l i y °r u stock a man was descended. Thus the old 

English 

history. English institutions were again carried on by 
Englishmen. This continuity of English history is a 



io86.] DOMESDAY BOOK. 2J 

very important fact. To it we owe much that is best in 
our laws and institutions, and to it we owe the best 
and strongest part of our speech. 

After a time a great many Englishmen were able to 
buy back part of their land from their Norman rulers. 
Now, all landowners, whether English or Nor- 

• i-i i ct ' • Domes- 

man, owed certain duties, called services, in day 

person or in money to the king, as their " over- 
lord." To find out exactly what was due him, the 
Conqueror sent men to all parts of England to look 
into the titles of estates and estimate their value. 
The results were most carefully written down in a 
great book, called the " Domesday Book," which was 
then kept at Winchester. It can still be seen at Lon- 
don, and is so valuable that every page has been photo- 
graphed and reprinted exactly as it was first written. 

It took about a year to make this Great Survey. 
When it was done, William ordered all but the small- 
est landowners to meet him on Salisbury Plain. The oath 
Sixty thousand came. They took a most solemn bur^ ahs 
oath to support William as king, even against (l ° 86 ^ 
their own lords. This made the English for the first 
time one nation. It was also a most important modi- 
fication of the feudal system, for it made all landowners 
directly subject to the king. Then, too, William did 
away with the old earldoms, and his foresight in these 
regards prevented his nobles or barons from becoming 
the equals of their king, as was the case in France and 
Germany. Thus England, in a great measure, escaped 
the petty wars which for centuries disturbed the rest 
of western Europe. 

In many other ways, too, the Norman Conquest af- 
fected England. For example, before long all the best 



28 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. [1086. 

places in the Church were filled with foreigners. But 
most of the new bishops and abbots were far supe^ 
influence r i° r * n mora -l s an d education to the English- 
es the men w hom they succeeded. They were also 

Roman 

Catholic devoted to the Pope of Rome, and soon made the 
church En g| ish National Church a part of the Roman 
England. Catholic Church. But William, while willing to 
bow to the Pope as his chief in religious matters, refused 
to give way to him in things which concerned only 
this world. No former English king had done that, 
he knew, and no more would he. This union with the 
Roman Catholic Church was of the greatest benefit to 
England, as it brought her once more into connection 
with the educated men of Europe. Indeed, Lanfranc, 
the Conqueror's Archbishop of Canterbury, was one of 
the best and wisest men of his day. 

In character the first William was stern to those 
who disobeyed him. " So harsh and cruel was he that 
TheNew none dared withstand him," says an old chroni- 
Forest. c j e g ut j t mus t be remembered that it took a 
man of very strong will to rule England at that time. 
Next to war, William's greatest passion was for hunt- 
ing. " He loved the tall deer as though he had been 
their father." To provide a home for them he ordered 
a large tract in Hampshire to be turned into a forest. 
And to still better preserve them, he made a law that 
any one who should kill a deer without leave should 
lose both his eyes. The very name of this New Forest, 
therefore, was hateful to his subjects, and two of his 
sons and one grandson lost their lives within its 
limits. 

The Normans were great builders. The White 
Tower — the oldest part of the Tower of London — 



1087.] WILLIAM'S DEATH. 29 

was built by the Conqueror as a fortress to hold the 
Londoners in check. The old Westminster London 
Hall was the work of his son William, the Red To ™ er 

and 

King, while all over England some of the West- 
grandest cathedral churches were planned and Hall. 
built by the early Norman bishops. 

The Conqueror's last years were very unhappy. 
His oldest son, Robert, rebelled, and the French king 
did his utmost to annoy him. At last, in an- wn 
swer to one of this king's insults, William Jj^ 
ordered the little town of Mantes to be burned. ( Jo8 7)- 
While he was riding through the town to see that his 
orders were carried out, his horse stepped on a burn- 
ing coal. The king's fat body was thrown against the 
high point of his saddle, and in three weeks he died. 
Normandy passed under the rule of his eldest son, 
Robert. The second son, William, received his ring 
and a letter to Lanfranc desiring the archbishop to 
crown him as king of England, if it were right. To 
Henry, the youngest son, he gave only a sum of 
money. As soon as the Conqueror was dead his sons 
hastened away to take possession of their inheritances. 
So stern had he been to his servants that they refused 
to touch his body; and it was with difficulty that even 
a piece of land was bought for a grave. 




A SILVER PENNY OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 



30 WILLIAM II., THE RED. [1087. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE NORMAN KINGS. 
1087-1154. 

THE younger William had a big red face, and peo- 
ple called him Rufus, or the Red. Many of the 
great barons of England, owning large estates in Nor- 
mandy, would have preferred to have but one ruler for 
wniiam both countries. But Robert was absent, and as 
11. the William Rufus promised Lanfranc to govern 
(1087- well, the archbishop crowned him king without 

delay. William was a good soldier and hun- 
ter, and he kept the nobles in order; but there was 
nothing else that was good about him. 

Above all, he was fond of extravagance and show. 
One day his servants brought him a pair of new boots. 

" How much did they cost ? " demanded the king, 
extrava- "Three shillings," the man replied. In a rage 

the Red King threw them from him, demanding 
boots that cost three times as much. The servant was 
a sharp man. He soon returned with a pair of cheaper 
boots, though he told his master they were very expen- 
sive. "Ay," exclaimed Rufus, as he pulled them 
on, "these are suited to royal majesty." After this 
his servants always charged him twice as much as his 
food and clothes really cost. They grew rich very 
fast. But the English people, who had to pay for all 
this waste, were not very sorry when the Red King was 



noo.] HENRY I. 31 

found one afternoon in the New Forest with an arrow 
in his shoulder. No one knows who killed him. An 
intimate companion named Wat Tyrrel, who H is 
was with him at the time, rode away as fast as death " 
he could. It is thought that perhaps Wat Tyrrel 
killed him by accident. Others say his servants shot 
him. At any rate, no sooner was the breath out of 
his body than his servants deserted him. If a poor 
charcoal man had not found the body, and carried it 
to Winchester in his cart, William Rufus might never 
have been buried. 

It chanced that the Conqueror's youngest son Henry 
was riding in the New Forest at the time. The instant 
he knew of his brother's death he put spurs to 
his horse and galloped to Winchester, where (noo- 
the royal treasure was then kept. After he had 
once made sure of that, his election was certain, and 



THE NORMAN KINGS. 

{English kings in italics.) 

Rollo, or Rolf, Duke of Normandy. 

William. 

Richard the Fearless. 
I 



Richard the Good. Ethelred the Unready (1) m. Emma m. (2) Cnut. 

I I I 

Robert the Devil. Edward the Confessor. Harthacnut. 

I 
William /., the Conqueror. 

1 1 1 r~~ — " f 

Robert. Richard. William If., Henry I. m. Edith (Matilda), Adela m. Stephen 
Rufus. I descendant of of Blois. 

I Cedric. Stephen. 

William Maud (Matilda) m. Geoffrey of Anjou. 

(drowned). | 

Henry II, 



32 THE NORMAN KINGS. [noo. 

three days later he was crowned at Westminster. Still 
there were many barons who would have preferred the 
elder brother Robert, Duke of Normandy, for king; 
so Henry was obliged to fall back on the native Eng- 
lish for support. To please them he married Edith, or 
Matilda, daughter of the king of Scots. She was 
descended, through her mother, from the old English 
line, and in this way a descendant of Cedric again 
came to rule in England. This marriage bound the 
English to Henry, and they stood by him in all his 
quarrels and wars. 

Indeed, he soon found himself so strong in England 

that he crossed over to Normandy, took his brother 

Duke Robert prisoner, and shut him up for the 

Conquers x x 

Nor- rest of his life. What was more important still, 
he conquered a large part of Wales and joined 
it to England. In England itself he governed so well 
that an old writer declared : " No man durst ill-treat 
another in his days. Peace he made for man and 
beast." He had a good education, too, for a soldier 
of his time, and people called him "Beauclerc," — 
good-scholar. 

Henry had two children, William and Matilda, or 
Maud. He was very fond of them, and they often ac- 
companied him in his journeyings. One after- 
white noon he sailed from a little harbor on the French 
coast for England. His son followed in "The 
White Ship," whose captain was the son of the very 
captain who had steered the great William on his con- 
quering voyage. The young people delayed, dancing 
and drinking till it was dark. Then, just as she was 
leaving the harbor, "The White Ship" struck on a 
rock and went down. As the prince with a few others 



H35-] STEPHEN. 33 

was rowing away in a little boat, he heard his fair 
cousin, the Countess of Perche, calling after him. He 
went back. The drowning men crowded into the boat. 
It sank, and when morning dawned one only, a butcher 
of Rouen, was saved. When Henry heard of his son's 
sad end he dropped senseless to the floor, and is said 
never to have smiled again. One of Mrs. Hemans's 
best-known poems is founded on this event, and also 
a poem by Rossetti, "The White Ship." 

But Henry did not give up all idea of founding a 
line of kings. He made the barons swear to be true 
to his daughter Maud, and then married her Geoffrey 
to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, one m a £." e j ° u 
of the greatest nobles in France. No sooner Maud - 
was Henry dead, however, than his barons broke 
their oaths, and made his nephew, Stephen, king of 
England. 

This Stephen was a handsome, good-natured, popu- 
lar man, and at first everything went well with him. 
He even defeated Maud's uncle, David, king of 

& Stephen 

Scots, in battle. But when he had given to the (1135- 
barons much of the land and money belonging " 54 ' 
to the Crown, they deserted him, and took the part of 
Maud. She came to England, and at first was so suc- 
cessful that Stephen was captured and put in prison, 
and she was recognized as queen, or rather "lady," of 
the English; for they used this last phrase commonly 
in those old days. Maud even went to London to be 
crowned. But she was so haughty and proud that the 
Londoners turned her out before her coronation-day. 
Stephen, too, gained his freedom, and in the end Maud 
had to flee from England. 

This civil war lasted fourteen years. It was a ter- 

3 



34 THE NORMAN KINGS. [1154. 

rible time for the English people. The great barons 
would sometimes come forth from their castles and 
civil plunder whole towns. The roads were so un- 
war * safe, it is said, that a lonely traveller, if he saw 
another man in the distance, would leave the road and 
try to conceal himself until danger was over. But 
everything has an end, and in 1 1 53 the bishops con- 
trived to make an agreement by which Stephen was to 
be king for the rest of his life, with the understanding 
that at his death the throne should go to Maud's son, 
Henry Plantagenet. The next year Stephen died. 




SEAL OF MILO OF GLOUCESTER, SHOWING MOUNTED ARMED FIGURE 
IN THE REIGN OF HENRY I. 



54-3 HENRY II. 35 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FIRST TWO PLANTAGENETS. 
1 1 54-1 199. 

HENRY the Second was only twenty-one years 
old when he became king of England. But 
he already was a very powerful man, as he ruled over 
more than one-third of France. He was called Plan- 
tagenet, from a bit of broom plant (plante-de- Henry 
genet) which he and his father were accus- *™_ 
tomed to wear in their helmets to distinguish Il8 9)- 
them from other knights. 

Henry was a very great king. He made many 
changes in the laws and customs of England, the 
effects of which we still feel. He divided H is 
England into circuits, and appointed persons, on reforms - 
whom he could rely, to travel round in these circuits, 
and see that all men, nobles and commons alike, 
obeyed the laws. The English judges still travel 
through England, as do many American judges through 
our country. When these judges came together in 
London, they sat as the King's Court, and were then 
called justices. When hearing cases in which the 
revenue was concerned, they sat around a great table 
with a top divided like a chequer-board. They were 
thence called barons of the exchequer, — a word which 
is still used as the name of one of the departments 
of the English government. 



36 THE FIRST TWO PLANTAGENETS. [1164. 

All these good things Henry was able to do because 
he had the support of the great mass of the people. 
Shield- He trusted them, and instead of disarming 
money, them, ordered every freeman to keep arms suita- 
ble to his social position. In addition to this national 
militia, Henry had a feudal army. It must be remem- 
bered that since the time of the great William nearly 
all English land was held on what was called a feudal 
tenure. That is, instead of paying rent for their pieces 
of land, or feuds, the great landholders promised to 
serve the king in time of war with their followers for 
forty days every year at their own expense. Henry 
made a law that all who were legally obliged to follow 
him, and yet wished to stay at home, could do so if 
they would pay "shield-money, " or "scutage, " instead. 
A very great many preferred to stay at home ; and with 
this money Henry hired a large army of foreigners. 
The result was that the barons grew less and less war- 
like, and, on the other hand, the Crown was much 
strengthened. 

There was one thing, however, that proved even 
stronger than Henry Plantagenet; that was the 
TheCon _ Church. The king wished to have the clergy, 
stitutions whenever they committed criminal acts, tried by 
endon his judges, like other people. He summoned the 
(1 164). ki sll0 p S an( j t k e g rea t barons to Clarendon, and 

by the " Constitutions " formed at that place they all 
agreed to do as he wished. The Pope did not approve 
this, and, following him, the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury withdrew his consent. Henry could not reach 
the Pope, but he revenged himself on the archbishop. 
This was Thomas Becket, the son of a Norman citizen 
of London. In earlier days he and Henry had been 



1 189.] CONQUEST OF IRELAND. 37 

great friends ; but no sooner had Thomas become arch- 
bishop than he did all he could to strengthen the 
Church, whether the king liked it or not. Becket fled 
to France; but in 11 70 he and Henry became recon- 
ciled. He had hardly reached Canterbury, however, 
before he suspended the Archbishop of York, who had 
done Henry a service. When Henry heard this he 
flew into a passion, exclaiming : " What cowards have 
I brought up in my court! Not one will rid me of 
this low-born priest." Reginald Fitzurse and three 
other knights took this as an order. They hurried to 
Canterbury, pursued Thomas Becket even to the altar 
in the cathedral, and killed him. It was a dreadful 
deed, and Henry was very sorry that he had lost his 
temper. Indeed, all his good fortune seemed to desert 
him from that time, until he knelt before Becket's 
tomb and bade the monks beat his bare shoulders. 

It was in Henry's reign that Richard of Clare, 
Maurice Fitz-Gerald, and other Norman knights went 
over to Ireland and put Dermot, king of Lein- 
ster, back on his throne again. After Dermot's quStof 
death, Richard of Clare married his daughter, Ireland * 
and ruled over Leinster; but he was afraid of Henry's 
jealousy, and gave up his conquests to him. Henry 
crossed over to Ireland, and was recognized as the 
sovereign of the island. But he never really con- 
quered it, and for hundreds of years Ireland remained 
the scene of strife between the descendants of the 
Normans on the one side, and their Irish neighbors on 
the other. 

Henry's last years were even more unhappy than 
those of the Conqueror. His sons rebelled, and TT 

. ' Henry's 

were so ably assisted by King Philip Augustus sons. 



38 



THE FIRST TWO PLANTAGENETS. 




EFFIGIES OF HENRY THE SECOND AND QUEEN ELEANOR. 



"9 2 -] RICHARD I. 39 

of France that he had to submit to their demands. He 
asked to see the list of those joined against him. It 
was headed by the name of his favorite son, John. 
The old king's heart was broken. "Now let things go 
as they will," he said; "I care no more for myself or 
the world. " In a few weeks he was dead. 

But John did not at once become king, for Richard, 
his elder brother, was in the way. Richard came over 
to London, was crowned, and then, as soon as „. , 1T 

Richard I. 

he had scraped together all the money he could, Cut- 
set out with his friend King Philip to conquer II99) ' 
the Holy Land. They quarrelled almost as soon as 
they reached that land, and Philip returned home to 
seize all of Richard's French possessions that he could 
reach. In England, too, John rose to the head of 
affairs, although Richard had left a friend of his own 
to govern in his absence. Richard did not lay siege to 
Jerusalem, but set off on his return to England. He 
was wrecked on the shores of the Adriatic, and while 
trying to get through Austria unseen, was arrested by 
Duke Leopold, whom he had insulted in the Holy 
Land. Duke Leopold handed him over to the Em- 
peror, who kept him close prisoner until the English 
people paid a large ransom. It is said that John even 
tried to bribe the Emperor to keep him still longer. 

At any rate, when he got back to England, Richard 
did not punish John very severely for his disloyalty. 
As soon as he got together an army, however, Rj C h ar d' S 
Richard crossed over to France to take vengeance death - 
on Philip Augustus. He accomplished little, and while 
trying to capture a castle in his own dominions, where 
he said there was some treasure that belonged to him, 
he was mortally wounded by an arrow. The castle 



40 



THE FIRST TWO PLANTAGENETS. [1199. 



surrendered before he died, and he ordered all within 
it to be hanged, except the boy who had shot him. 
" What have I done that you should take my life ? " 
said the king. " You have killed my father and two 
brothers," was the reply. King Richard commanded 
that the brave boy be set free; but after the king's 
death he was hanged, with cruel tortures. 

Richard Cceur de Lion was in England for but eight 
months during his whole reign. He cared nothing for 
His place England or for Englishmen, except as they sup- 
iand" g " plied him with money to carry on his costly 
history. wars# Nevertheless, he soon came to be looked 
upon as the nation's hero, and he is described as such 
in Scott's novel, "Ivanhoe." Traditions gathered 
about his name all over Europe, and it is said that for 
hundreds of years the tired Arab mothers were wont to 
terrify their crying babes into silence with, " Hush ye ! 
here comes King Richard." 




A SILVER PENNY OF JOHN, STRUCK AT DUBLIN. 



H99-J PHILIP SEIZES NORMANDY AND ANJOU. 41 



CHAPTER VII. 

KING JOHN AND MAGNA CHARTA. 
II99-I216. 

RICHARD'S younger brother John was crowned 
king in England. But in France there were 
many nobles who wished to have John's nephew, 
Prince Arthur, for their duke. Philip Augustus took 
the young prince's side. John captured the Prince 
boy, and ordered Hubert de Burgh to put out Arthur - 
his eyes. "For," thought he, "the Normans will 
never want a blind man to be their duke." But the 
poor boy begged so hard that Hubert did not have the 
heart to carry out his orders. There was no mercy 
in John, however, and after he got possession of 
Prince Arthur the boy was never seen again. Men 
said that John had stabbed him to death; but no one 
really knows how he died. 

Now, John, as Duke of Normandy and Count of 
Anjou, was a vassal of the king of France. So Philip 
summoned him to Paris to clear himself of this phiH of 
charge of murder. John, who knew better than France 

seizes 

to trust himself within Philip's power, refused Nor- 
to appear, and so Philip seized his French domin- and Y 
ions. Aquitaine and the Channel Islands alone An J° u - 
remained to the English Crown. Aquitaine has long 
since been lost ; but the Channel Islands (Jersey, 
Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark) still belong to the 



42 KING JOHN AND MAGNA CHARTA. [1213. 

English sovereign, — the only remnant of the Norman 
possessions of William the Conqueror. In this way 
John was forced to become a real English king. 

His next quarrel was with the Pope. It was about 
the election of a new Archbishop of Canterbury. The 
The Pope declared that an Englishman, Stephen 
interdict. L an gtc-n Dv name, was the duly elected arch- 
bishop. John refused to recognize him. Then the 
Pope ordered all religious services to cease in Eng- 
land. This was called an interdict. If we remember 
that the Roman Catholic faith was then the only re- 
ligion practised in England, we can see how serious a 
thing this interdict was. It lasted six years, and for 
six years almost no one was married with regular re- 
ligious services in all England. Still John did not 
yield. So the Pope cast him out of the Church, or 
excommunicated him. And as this did not bring him 
to terms, the Pope deposed him, or declared him to be 
no king at all, and ordered Philip Augustus to carry 
out the sentence. 

Now, if John had been a good king, he might perhaps 
have been strong enough at home to care very little 
John for the Pope and the French king put together. 
tothe tS But unfortunately he was a very bad ruler, and 
Pope. a j] hjg p e0 pi e hated him. So he soon found 
that his barons were actually conspiring with the 
French Philip against him. This so alarmed him that 
he not only recognized Langton as archbishop, but 
he put himself and his kingdom under the protection 
of the Pope, actually agreeing to pay rent for it. 

Philip never came over, but John kept on governing 
as badly as ever. The barons determined to stop it. 
With their armed followers they marched to London, 



121 5-] THE GREAT CHARTER. 43 

Nearly every one deserted John. He met the barons 
on a little island in the Thames not far from Windsor 
and near the meadow of Runneymead. There, Magna 
on the 15th of June, 121 5, he signed the Magna charta 
Charta, or Great Charter, which his barons 
presented to him. This can still be seen, carefully 
preserved, in the British Museum, and it is the most 
important document in English history. 

In England there is no written frame of government 
like the American constitution. The English govern- 
ment is based on the laws and customs of the The pro- 
kingdom, and especially on three great docu- visi0ns - 
ments, — this Great Charter of rights of the thirteenth 
century, and the Petition of Right and Bill of Rights 
of the Stuart time. These documents are so important 
that Lord Chatham once called them "The Bible of 
the English constitution." The Great Charter is in 
reality a treaty between the king and the people of 
England. To it we, in common with English-speak- 
ing people the world over, owe many of the rights 
which distinguish us from all other nations. 

The most important clause of this Great Charter was 
that relating to taxation. Richard, and after him 
John, had wrung tax after tax from the barons and 
people. The barons now determined to put an end to 
this. It was provided, therefore, in the charter that 
thenceforth no tax (other than a few taxes specified in 
the charter itself) should be laid by the king without 
the consent of the nation, given through a national 
council. It was further provided that all the greater 
barons should be summoned to this council by a royal 
summons directed to each one of them, while the lesser 
landholders were to be summoned in a less formal way, 



44 KING JOHN AND MAGNA CHARTA. [1216. 

by a writ directed to the sheriff of their shire. This 
provision never went into actual operation, and was 
omitted from the later issues of the charter. Yet its 
importance can hardly be over-estimated. It was the 
basis for the summoning of Simon of Montfort's Par- 
liament, and of the first regular Parliament in the 
great Edward's time. 

The more famous sentences of the Great Charter are 
the following, which have been thus translated from 
the original Latin : " No free man shall be taken, or 
imprisoned, or disseised [dispossessed], or outlawed, or 
exiled, or any ways destroyed. Nor will we go upon 
him, nor send upon him, unless by the lawful judgment 
of his peers [equals], or by the law of the land. " " To 
none will we sell, to none will we deny or delay right 
or justice." It is on these sentences that the right to 
a speedy trial by jury is based, "the most effectual 
security against oppression which the wisdom of man 
has hitherto been able to devise." 

Twenty-five barons were chosen to see that King 
John obeyed the Charter. In truth, he had no idea 
John's of doing what he had promised. It is said 
death, tliat he was so angry at having been compelled 
to sign it that he rolled on the floor in rage, and 
gnawed a stick. The Pope soon declared that the 
charter had no force, as the king had been compelled 
to sign it; and John hired some French soldiers to 
help him put down his barons. But Stephen Langton, 
the archbishop, took their side, and they resolved 
to have a new king. So they called Prince Louis of 
France to be their ruler. As soon as he appeared, 
John's French soldiers refused to fight. The Scots and 
Welsh turned against their king; and there is every 



1216.] 



JOHN S DEATH. 



45 



reason to believe that he would have been the last of his 
race to rule in England, had not the vexation of spirit 
at his losses thrown him into a fever, from which he 
died. It may be that too many peaches and too much 
ale hastened his end, and there is a story that he was 
poisoned by a monk. In whatever manner he died, the 
English people were not sorry to have him out of the 
way. 




ROYAL ARMS OF ENGLAND FROM RICHARD I. TO EDWARD III. 



4 6 HENRY III. [1216. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HENRY III. 
I2I6-I272. 

A FEW barons had stood by John to the end, and 
one of them, William Marshall, Earl of Pem- 
broke, proclaimed John's son as king, under the title 
of Henry III. As the new king was only nine years 
old, Pembroke ruled for him. The first thing he did 
was to re-issue the Great Charter. This pleased the 
barons, and they deserted the French prince in such 
numbers that he was glad to get back to France 
alive. 

But in time Henry grew up, and began to govern as 
badly as his father had ever governed. Above all, he 
made the barons pay a great deal of money to support 
his foreign wars. The barons rebelled, and compelled 
Henry to place the government of England in their 
hands. Then they quarrelled among themselves, and 
as Henry had the Pope on his side, he tried to get his 
power back again. 

Even in those old days young men came from all 
parts of England, Scotland, and Wales to the colleges 
at Oxford to pursue their education. They 
thought on political subjects very much as their 
fathers thought; and having no responsibility in the 
matter, expressed their feelings more openly than did 
their fathers. In fact, their fights in the streets of 



1265. 



EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 



47 



Oxford so often showed 
the position which their 
fathers were about to 
take that it became a 
common saying: 

"When Oxford draws the 
knife, 
England 's soon at strife." 

They now showed the 
approach of civil war 
by driving the Pope's 
legate, or lieutenant, 
out of Oxford. 

The head of the na- 
tional party was Simon 
of Montfort. He Earl 

i_ 1- • 4-t. Simon of 

was by birth a Mont . 
Frenchman; but fort * 
he had inherited an 
English earldom, and 
had become a thorough 
Englishman. He col- 
lected an army, and 
meeting the king at 
Lewes, captured him 
and his whole family. 
He then summoned a 
Great Council, to which 
not only the barons and 
large land-owners were 
admitted, but also rep- 
resentatives from the 




EFFIGY OF A KNIGHT IN THE TEMPLE 
CHURCH, LONDON, SHOWING ARMOR 
WORN BETWEEN II90 AND 1225. 



48 HENRY III. L1265. 

great towns, or boroughs. For some time the Great 

Council had been called a Parliament, from the French 

. word parler, "to speak," because affairs were 

Simon's spoken about, or debated, there. This Great 

Parlia- . 

ment Council was therefore called Earl Simon's Par- 
5 ' liament. It was really the beginning of the 
present form of government in England. 

It happened one day that as the king's eldest son, 
Prince Edward, was out riding, he escaped from his 
Eves- jailers. Gathering an army, he came upon Earl 
ham - Simon at Evesham, and overthrew him. The 
great earl was killed during the battle, but his work 
did not perish with him, for Prince Edward, who ruled 




SEAL OF ROBERT FITZWALTER, SHOWING A MOUNTED KNIGHT IN 
COMPLETE MAIL ARMOR. DATE, ABOUT 1265. 

for his father, was a wise man, and governed well. In 
fact, so quiet did the barons become that the prince 



1272.] ROGER BACON. 49 

left England and went on a crusade. Before his return 
King Henry died. As his body was lying in West- 
minster Abbey, Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, placing 
his hand on the dead king, swore allegiance to King 
Edward the First, and the king was proclaimed. 

It was in the Third Henry's time that Roger Bacon, 
a great scholar and a friar, put forth many famous 
books {Opus Majus), applying to the natural sciences 
what was afterwards called the inductive method of 
reasoning; that is, reasoning from observation and ex- 
perience. It is said that the clergy were so afraid that 
the new ideas would destroy their hold on the minds 
of men that they put Bacon into prison. It was in 
Henry's time, too, that the old Norman way of build- 
ing with round arches gave place to the lighter style 
of pointed arches. When, in its turn, this latter 
mode went out of fashion, men called it, after the bar- 
barous Goths, the Gothic style. Salisbury Cathedral 
is one of the most splendid examples of this mode of 
architecture. 



THE FIRST TWO EDWARDS. [1272. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE FIRST TWO EDWARDS. 
1272-1327. 

AS the new king was the first of his name to rule 
in England since the Norman Conquest, he was 
called Edward the First. He was a very great and 
wise man, and did many important things. The first 
Ed di was t ^ ie conc l uest °* Wales ; and this was how 
"Long- it happened. The Welsh chieftains had been 

shanks" f P 1 _ .. , . . 

(1272- vassals oi the English king tor many years. 

But Llewelyn, who was prince of all Wales when 
Edward became king, thought that it would be a good 
time to make himself an independent prince. He was 

betrothed to a daughter of Earl Simon, and it 

L anquers 

Wales may be that he was really the head of a con- 
spiracy to dethrone Edward. Xow the king, who 
had defeated Simon of Montfort at Evesham, was no 
ordinary soldier, and in a short time he conquered 
Wales, and compelled the prince to submit. A few 
years later Llewelyn again rebelled. He himself was 
killed in a chance encounter, but his brother, the real 
leader, was captured and executed. From that day 
Prince of Edward governed Wales as if it were a part of 
Wales. £^1^^ To please the Welsh, he made his 
eldest son Prince of Wales, and the title has been borne 
by the eldest son of the king of England ever since. 
There is a story that Edward promised to give them 
a native prince, who could not speak one word of 



1284.] THE WELSH BARDS. 5 1 

English, and that he then showed them the young 
Edward, who had just been born in the Welsh castle 
of Caernarvon. But it is not certain that this is really 
true. Another story is that Edward, seeing the The 
Welsh bards, or minstrels, kept alive the spirit Bard5 - 
of liberty, ordered them all to be killed. Xo historian 
now believes this, but it forms the basis of a poem 
called "The Bard," by the poet Gray. 

It so happened that at this time there were many 
claimants to the crown of Scotland. They referred 
their claims to Edward, who decided that John 

J Balhol 

Balliol ought to be king. Balliol and his and 

rival, Robert Bruce, were of Norman descent 

on their father's side. They inherited their claims 

SUCCESSION TO THE SCOTTISH THROXE IN 1290. 

David I., f 115^5. 

I 
Henry. 

I 

Malcolm IV., 1 1165. William the Lion, f 1214. David, f 1219. 

I , r 1 — 1 

Alexander II., f 1249. Margaret Isabella Ada m. 

Int. Allan of m. Bruce of Hastings. 
Galloway. Annandale. 

Alexander III., f 1285. 

Devorgild Marjory. Robert Henry 



m. John Balliol. 



Bruce. Hastings 



Alexander, f 1283. 

Eric m. Margaret John Balliol. Marjory m. Comvn Bruce, John Has- 

ofNorwav | f 1283. f 1295. I the Earl of Carrick. tings. 

I , I Black. I 

Margaret, " Maid of Edward BallioL The Red Comyn. The Bruce, f 1329. 

Norway,"! 1290. Be- killed by Bruce 

frothed to son of in 1306. 

Edward I. On her j j 

death line extinct David, f 1370. Marjory m. W. Stuart. 

Robert II. 



52 



THE FIRST TWO EDWARDS. [1298. 



to the Scottish throne through their mothers. Balliol 
agreed to hold his kingdom as a gift from the Eng- 
lish king. But this made him and his son unpopu- 
lar in Scotland, and so, after his father's death, the 
younger Balliol made an alliance with the French 
king. He soon found himself a prisoner in London 
Tower. 

Edward now determined to govern Scotland as if it 
were his own kingdom. To show his right to that 
stone of throne, he carried to London the Stone of 
Scone. Scone, on which the Scottish kings had been 
crowned. There he had a chair built around it, and 
upon it every king of England has been crowned from 
that day to this. 

Now, the Scots did not at all like losing their inde- 
pendence. As soon as Edward got into trouble with 
France, they rebelled. Their leader was an 
William outlawed knight called Sir William Wallace. 
He was so very cruel to the English who came 
in his way that the great Scottish writer, Sir Walter 
Scott, wrote of him, " He left nothing behind but blood 
and ashes " in his path along the English border. His 
success was but short-lived, for the very next year 
Falkirk Edward went to Scotland with an army. He 
(1298). f ounc i Wallace and his followers at Falkirk, 
and utterly destroyed them. Wallace himself was 
taken to London, and killed with all the dreadful 
cruelties that the law then visited on outlaws. This 
was in 1305 ; and, although Wallace had been so cruel, 
he soon became the national hero of Scotland. 

But troubles did not cease in Scotland; for the 
Bruce very next year Robert Bruce, the grandson of 
Comyn. Balliol's rival, met Comyn, who was after Balliol 



1 295.] THE FIRST PERFECT PARLIAMENT. 53 

the next heir to the Scottish crown, in a little church 
in Dumfries, and stabbed him to the heart. Bruce 
then declared himself the true king of Scotland. King 
Edward was greatly enraged at this foul murder. His 
soldiers hunted Bruce from place to place, but they 
could not seize him; and while journeying north 
to take command of his army, Edward died, dies 
within sight of the Scottish border. 

These wars, however, were the least important events 
of Edward's reign. The most important thing was 
that it took a great deal of money to carry them The 
on; and this money the king could not get perfect 
without agreeing to certain laws which have in- ^J?" 
fluenced the history ot England ever since. It ( I2 95)- 
was in 1295, just before the invasion of Scotland, that 
Edward held his first parliament. As he needed the 
support of all his subjects, he took Simon of Montfort's 
Parliament for a model. The assembly of 1295 was the 
first legal Parliament in which the people of England 
were really represented, and therefore the great his- 
torian of the English people, John Richard Green, has 
called its assembling "the most important event in 
English history." Let us stop a moment and see who 
came to it. 

In the first place, there were the great barons and 
churchmen. They were the king's greater feudal 
vassals, and came in person. There were too i ts C om- 
many smaller landowners to admit of their P° sltlon - 
coming in person, so the sheriff of each county held 
an election for two knights to represent all the land- 
owners of that county. They were called knights of 
the shire. Next came two citizens from each city, 
and two burghers, or burgesses, from each burgh, 



54 THE FIRST TWO EDWARDS. [1297. 

borough, or large town. These last two classes repre- 
sented the merchants and mechanics of the cities and 
boroughs. 

But the greatest law of all was the Confirmation of 
the Charters, which Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, 
Confir- an< ^ Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, ex- 
mation torted from the king. It seems that Edward 

of the ° 

charters was afraid of the power of these two men, and 
he ordered them to lead an army into southern 
France. They refused. In a rage the king exclaimed 
to Bigod, "Sir Earl, you shall either go or hang!" 
"Sir King," the Earl Marshal replied, "I will neither 
go nor hang." The king then laid a tax upon wool, 
and sailed for Flanders. The two earls forbade the 
collection of the tax. The Londoners, and even the 
churchmen, joined them. The king was helpless. At 
Ghent he confirmed the charters, with the additional 
promise that he would not lay a tax without the com- 
mon consent of the nation. 

Edward of Caernarvon, known as Edward II., was 
the first Prince of Wales to become king of England. 
Edward He was also the first king to date his reign 
(J307- from the day of his father's death. This may 
1327). seem to be a very small thing in itself, but it 
showed that the old custom of waiting to elect a new 
king was being forgotten. Yet even at the present 
time the form of election is kept up at the coronation. 
The new Edward was very unlike his father. For one 
thing, he was too fond of foreigners. Especially was 
this true of a certain Piers, or Pierce, Gaveston, who 
had a very bad influence upon him. For one thing, 
Gaveston was all the time making fun of the barons, 
and calling them nicknames; and this trick led at last 



1327.] THE DESPENSERS. 55 

to his death. Headed by the Earl of Lancaster, the 
king's uncle, the barons captured Gaveston and exe- 
cuted him. The execution, however, was due Gaveston 
mainly to the Earl of Warwick, whom Gaveston J^g£ 
had called "The Black Dog." 

While all this was going on in England, Bruce was 
not idle in Scotland. On the contrary, he overran the 
greater part of that country. In 13 14 Edward Bruce in 
marched to the relief of Stirling Castle. He Scotland - 
had with him nearly one hundred thousand men ; but 
Bruce, with scarcely thirty thousand, met him on the 
banks of a little brook, or burn, the Bannockburn, 
not far from Stirling Castle, and defeated him „ 

Bannock- 

utterly. It was with the greatest difficulty that bum 
Edward escaped, and from this time Scotland 13H ' 
was lost to the English. 

The Irish, too, thought that this would be a good 
time to assert their independence. But the Norman- 
English nobles living in Ireland were too strong The 
for their wild Irish neighbors, and the rebellion Irlsh * 
ended in nothing but increased suffering for the 
conquered Irish. 

One would have thought that the fate of Gaveston 
would have been a warning to the king. But it was 
not long before he had more favorites. This The De- 
time they were named Despenser, or Spenser, s P ensers - 
father and son. The barons again rebelled. But 
this time they did not have it all their own way, and 
the Earl of Lancaster was taken by the king and 
hanged. It happened that the queen, who was a 
Frenchwoman, cared more for an earl named Mortimer 
than she did for the king. So she hired some soldiers 
in France, and brought them over to England. The 



56 



THE FIRST TWO EDWARDS. 



[1327. 



king and his favorite tried to run away, but they 
The kin ^ e ^ * nt0 tne barons' hands. The Despensers 
mur- were hanged, and Edward, after being deposed 
(1327). by Parliament, was cruelly beaten to death, at 
the order, it is supposed, of Mortimer. 




GROUP OF ARMED KNIGHTS, ABOUT I3OO. 



327.] HALIDON HILL. 57 



CHAPTER X. 

EDWARD III. 

I327-I377- 

KING Edward the Third was only fourteen years 
old at this time, and a council of regency was 
appointed to rule in his name. But Mortimer and the 
queen really possessed all the power, and they used 
it very ill. Suddenly, in 1330, the young king 
arrested Mortimer, and took the control of af- mer 
fairs into his own hands. Not long after, a * 
Mortimer was hanged, and the queen was kept a 
close prisoner for the rest of her life. 

Of course during these disturbances the Scots had 
not been idle. They had actually invaded England, 
and had returned to Scotland only when Bruce Haiidon 
was acknowledged as the rightful king of Scot- HllL 
land by the English Government. But the peace thus 
bought did not last long, and in 1333 the Scottish 
army was totally overthrown at the battle of Haiidon 
Hill. Nothing was really decided by this battle, for 
the Scots were far from being subdued. But the vic- 
tory put new heart into Englishmen, and gave them 
more confidence in themselves. And they were soon 
to need all the confidence such a victory could inspire. 

During all this time the English had retained pos- 
session of a few domains in southwestern France, and 
this had been a constant source of dispute between 



58 



EDWARD III. 




1328.] CAUSE OF THE WARS WITH FRANCE. 59 

the kings of England and France. It seemed to the 
French king at this time that he might compel Edward 
to do what he wished by interfering in Scotland, cause of 
Edward, of course, resented this, and Philip of ^ h wars 
France seized some of the English possessions France. 
in France. To make his cause seem more just, Edward 
laid claim to the French throne in right of his mother. 
There was a law in France, called the Salic law, which 
prevented a woman from either ruling herself or trans- 
mitting any rights to the crown to her descendants. 
Now, the descent of the French crown was regulated 
by French law, and Edward's claim was very weak 
in other ways. Edward probably never regarded it as 
good for much ; but he thought that Frenchmen, being 
discontented with the ruling king, would be more 
likely to fight on his side if he called himself king of 
France, and in this he was right. The motto which 
he adopted at this time, — "Dieu et mon droit," — is 
still retained, though the title of king of France was 
dropped nearly a hundred years ago by the English 
kings. 

At first it was very hard to get money to pay the 
soldiers ; but after a while, as one victory after another 

SUCCESSION TO THE FRENCH CROWN, 1328. 

[The dates are those of the kings' deaths.] 

Philip III., 1270. 
J 

Philip IV., 1285. Charles of Valois. 



I 1 "1 1 I 

Louis X., Philip V., Charles IV., Isabella m. Edward II. of Philip VI. 
1314. 1316. 1322. I England. 1328. 

Joan of Edward III. of 

Navarre. England. 



60 EDWARD III. [1340. 

was won, the war became self-supporting. The first 

great success was on the water. In the year 1340, 

Edward and his English sailors defeated a 

Sea-fight . & 

at siuys French fleet in the harbor of Sluys. So great 
(Ij4 ° ; ' was the slaughter that no one seemed willing to 
tell King Philip of France of the disaster. Finally, 
the court jester, or fool, cried out : " What cowards 
those English are ! They had not the courage all to 
jump overboard, as the French did." This victory 
broke the naval power of France, and for a whole 
generation the English could sail up and down the 
Channel without fear of attack. 

For five years there was no serious fighting; but in 
1345 the war began again. The English in southern 
France were soon hard pressed. Edward thought he 
could best relieve them by invading Normandy. So 
he larrdeoT with an army at La Hogue, and attempted 
to march across the country to Flanders. The bridges 
over the Seine were broken, and it was some time 
before he could get across. Finally, however, he out- 
witted the French, and crossed the river not far from 
Paris. Then, passing the Somme, near its mouth, when 
Cressy the tide was low, he drew up his men on the hill 
(1346). f Cressy, or Crecy. The French army was sev- 
eral times larger than that of the English ; but Edward 
had with him only trained soldiers, whose sole busi- 
ness was to fight, while Philip's force, on the contrary, 
was a feudal army of the old pattern, being composed 
of knights and gentlemen, clad in suits of heavy iron 
armor, and a mass of poorly armed and entirely un- 
trained peasants. It was a mob rather than an army. 
When the two armies came together, the English bow- 
men shot their arrows so accurately and well that the 



A WALLED TOWN. 



61 




62 EDWARD III. [1346. 

French knights and cross-bowmen were thrown into 
utter disorder; and to add to the confusion some can- 
non, then used perhaps for the first time in European 
wars, so frightened the French horses that there was 
no controlling them. When the sun went down, 
Edward was master of the field, and soon after marched 
in peace to Calais, and began the siege of that town. 

While the king was thus occupied in France, the 
Scots were doing their best to annoy him in England. 
But the men of the northern counties, inspired by the 
brave words of Queen Philippa, turned back this in- 
vasion, and left Edward free to carry on the French 
war. The siege of Calais lasted a whole year. 
Siege of At last, however, when the inhabitants of the 
Calais, town had eaten everything that could be eaten 
in the town, they were obliged to surrender. Six of 
the principal citizens, with halters around their necks, 
marched into the English camp. Edward, when they 
came before him, called for the executioner. But it 
is said he winked at the same moment at one of his 
courtiers. At all events, the men of Calais were not 
killed, though the common people were driven from 
their city homes, which were given to English emi- 
grants, and for two hundred years Calais continued a 
flourishing English town. 

The next few years were years of peace, due in part 
to a truce between the two kings, but more especially 
The to a fearful disease called the Black Death, 
Deatti which appeared in England in 1349. It is sup- 
(1349)- posed that from one-third to one-half of the pop- 
ulation was swept away. In some parts of the island 
whole districts were left without people. One half of 
the priests of Yorkshire died at this time, and the 



1376.] PEACE OF BRETIGNY. 63 

Archbishops of Canterbury and York were killed by 
this scourge. A similar disease attacked the cattle; 
and this, with the scarcity of farm laborers, threatened 
a famine. At such a time war was hardly possible. 

Indeed, it was not until 1355 that the war was begun 
again in earnest. The next year Edward's eldest son, 
the Black Prince, as people called him, from the Powers 
color of the armor which he had worn at Cressy, ( x 35 6 )- 
marched into the heart of southern France. At length 
the French closed in upon him; but he posted his men 
with such skill among the vineyards of Poitiers that 
the French were beaten off with terrible slaughter. 
Even King John of France was captured and taken to 
London, where he found King David of Scotland, who 
had been captured years before at Nevil's Cross. 

The war dragged on a few years longer, but in 1360 
a treaty was made at Bretigny. By this treaty Edward 
was to keep the southern provinces as an inde- 

^i-i • Peace of 

pendent king. On his part he was to give up Bretigny 
his claim to the French throne, and to release 
King John on payment of a large ransom. Now, it is 
often much easier to make a treaty than to carry out 
its provisions, and so it proved in this case. Edward 
never gave up his title of King of France, and many 
of the barons in southern France refused to become 
his subjects. So the war broke out again, and dragged 
on for many years. In the end the English lost nearly 
all their French conquests, owing mainly to the cruelty 
and bad policy of the Black Prince. He never lived 
to be king, as he died in 1376, one year before his 
father's death. 

We must now turn to England itself, and see what 
had been accomplished during all these years in the 



6 4 



EDWARD III. 



[i333- 




TOMB OF EDWARD III. IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

way of better government. Arbitrary as Edward was, 
he had been led into many reforms by the necessity 
of raising large sums of money, and of securing and 
keeping the good-will of the English aristocracy and 



I333-] PARLIAMENT SEPARATES INTO TWO HOUSES. 65 

the wealthier classes. For this reason we find the 
power of Parliament increase step by step. About 
1333 the knights of the shire (as the representatives of 
the lesser landowners were called) and the burgesses 
(as those who were elected by the people of Parlia 
the towns and boroughs were termed) separated ment 

' x separates 

themselves from the great lords and bishops, into two 

i i tt r /"■ 1 houses. 

and sat apart as the House of Commons; the 
others forming the upper house, or House of Peers. 
This division into two houses without any sharp divid- 
ing line between them, and with two classes of men 
sitting in each house, is of great importance in English 
history. In the first place the king was never able to 
play off one class against another, as would have been 
easy if the four orders had sat each by itself, or if they 
had all sat and voted together. In the next place, as 
time went on, it became common for the members of 
the great baronial families to sit in the lower house 
side by side with the representatives of the merchants 
of the towns. In this way they became accustomed to 
the ideas of the middle class, and never formed such 
an exclusive caste as the nobles did in the countries of 
the Continent. 

Now, at this time the popes did riot live at Rome, 
for since the early part of the century they had resided 
at Avignon, in southern France. The Pope thus came 
completely under the control of the French king, and 
was therefore regarded with suspicion and dislike by 
the English people, as being a kind of Frenchman, and 
therefore their enemy. So strong did this feeling 
become that Parliament passed two laws, forbidding 
any one taking a church office from the Pope, and from 
bringing suits in his court. This latter was called 

5 



66 EDWARD III. [1333. 

the Statute of Praemunire, from words in the writ by 
which it was enforced. The penalty for disobey- 

Statute r r • c 

of Prae- ing this statute, or law, was forfeiture of prop- 
erty and imprisonment during the pleasure of 
the king. Another thing which showed the growing 
dislike to the Pope was the rise of the people called 
Lollards. 

Exactly what "Lollard" means is not clear; but it 
probably signified an idle babbler. These Lollards 
The thought that the bishops and the clergy gener- 
Loiiards. a iiy lived too easy and luxurious lives, and gave 
too little attention to their real work, which should be 
the care of men's souls and deeds of charity. The 
j hn leader and the founder of this sect was John 
Wychffe. Wycliffe, one of the great scholars and teachers 
of his time. Wycliffe gathered around him a band of 
earnest men, who went through the country preaching 
to the poor, and by their example teaching men to live 
upright and pure lives. Before this time the Bible 
was only to be found in Latin or some other learned 
language. Copies of it were quite rare, and only the 
upper clergy could read it. Wycliffe thought that the 
Bible should be the common property of all English- 
men, and he translated the New Testament into simple 
English. Of course it was still a rare book, as print- 
ing had not then been introduced into England. 

The dreadful Black Death, too, had caused great 
discontent, and had some serious consequences. The 
king had allowed the great barons to pay him a sum of 
money instead of doing the personal service which the 
feudal system required, and in the same way the land- 
owners had allowed their serfs, or villeins, to pay a 
small sum of money instead of performing the personal 



1376.] COPYHOLD TENURE. 67 

service (such as two or three days' work every week 
on the lord's farm) which their obligations required. 
The conditions of this money payment were written 
down on the records of the estate, a copy being given 
to the serf. Thus he became a "copyholder," and his 
holding, or farm, became a "copyhold;" and Copy 
this form of tenure went by the name of " copy- hoid^ 
hold tenure." Now, the Black Death, by kill- 
ing so many laborers, made it very difficult for the 
lord to hire men to do his work. And so he tried to 
make his serfs perform their work in person, as they 
formerly had done, instead of paying money. Of 
course this caused great opposition. The Parliament, 
too, as it was mainly in the hands of the land-own- 
ers, tried to keep wages down by passing a law called 
the Statute of Laborers. This law forbade statute of 
laborers to receive higher wages than they Laborers - 
had earned before the Black Death. As the prices of 
bread and all the necessaries of life had risen, this 
resulted in great hardships, the outcome of which we 
shall soon see. 



68 RICHARD II. Ii377. 



CHAPTER XL 

RICHARD II. 

I377-I387- 

THE Black Prince's son Richard, a lad of eleven 
years, succeeded to his grandfather's throne, the 
government being carried on by some one else, called 
a regent. It was a bad time for such an experiment, 
The for on every side there was discontent. There 
Revait tS ' were large debts remaining from Edward's time, 
(1381). and these were soon increased by the expense 
of stopping a threatened French invasion. Parliament 
tried to raise money in various ways. Finally, it hit 
upon a scheme called a poll-tax. It was called a poll- 
tax because it was a tax of so much per head, or poll. 
A poll-tax is not bad in itself, but it was arranged at 
that time so as to fall most heavily on the poorer 
classes. It could not be collected. Finally, a man 
was found who promised to collect it if the judges 
should be ordered to help him. This was done, and 
collectors went through the country compelling people 
to pay, under the most fearful threats in case they re- 
fused. At last one of these collectors insulted a 
daughter of a Kentish blacksmith named Walter, and 
called from his trade Wat the Tyler, or simply Wat 
Tyler. Before the collector could escape, Wat the 
Tyler dashed his brains out with his hammer; and then, 



i 3 8i.j 



THE PEASANTS' REVOLT. 



6 9 



putting himself at the head of the peasants of Kent, 
marched towards London. Men flocked to his standard 
from all sides. Among the rest there was a priest who 
called himself Jack Straw, and who led the men of 




PLOUGHING. 



Essex. Then, too, another priest, named John Ball, 
went with them, preaching from the text, — 

" When Adam delved, and Eve span, 
Who was then the gentleman ? " 

Sixty thousand strong, they reached London, killed 
the archbishop and all the lawyers they could find, and 




HARROWING. A BOY SLINGING STONES. 



burned the houses of those whom they hated. At 
last Wat the Tyler was himself killed ; and, deprived 



7o 



RICHARD II. 



[1387. 



of their leader, the rebels dispersed. While he was 
in their power the king had made great promises 
to these people, all of which he now broke. And 
the Parliament, too, passed laws tending to keep 
the lower classes forever in the condition of serfs; 
but they were never carried out, as no one feared 
another peasant revolt more than did these same 
landowners. Indeed, it is from this time that the rise 




of the class of independent farmers called "yeomen" 
dates. 

The remainder of Richard's reign was taken up with 
disputes between his favorites and the nobles who 
were out of power. In 1387 the parliamentary 
tion of party, led by Richard's uncle, the Duke of Glou- 
cester, gained the upper hand, and turned the 
favorites out, even executing many of them. But 
before long the king again got control. For a time 
he governed well ; but as soon as he felt himself strong 
enough, he revenged himself on his enemies. The 
Duke of Gloucester disappeared, and every one thought 
he was murdered, though it is now believed that he 
died from natural causes. Soon after this the Duke 
of Hereford, Henry of Bolingbroke, son of John of 



1387.] ABDICATION OF RICHARD. 7 1 

Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was exiled to France on a 
most frivolous charge. John of Gaunt felt his son's 
disgrace very keenly, and presently died. Richard, 
in defiance of a solemn promise, seized his estates. 
The king then went to Ireland to try to restore the 
waning fortunes of the English in that island. This 
was the young Duke of Lancaster's opportunity. 
Crossing over to England, he was everywhere most 
gladly received by the people. Richard, returning in 
haste from Ireland, was captured and forced to abdi- 
cate. Years before, he had been warned that the time 
might come when the English people would rise and 
depose him, and Parliament now did this very thing, 
on the ground of misgovernment. Then Henry of 
Lancaster, rising in his place in the House of Lords, 



THE LATER PLANTAGENETS. 

Henry III. 

I 

Edward I. Edmund, 

I Earl of Lancaster. 

I 
Edward II. Henry, 

Earl of Lancaster. 
I 
Edward III. Henry, 

Duke of Lancaster. 



Edward Lionel, John of Gaunt, m. Blanche, 

The Black Prince. Duke of Clarence. Duke of Lancaster, I Duchess of Lancaster. 

Richard II., Philippa m. Earl of March. Henry Bolingbroke, 

t 1400, S. P. I Earl of Hereford, Duke of Lan- 

Roger, Earl of March, caster, King Henry IV. 
t 1398. 



I I 

Edmund, Anne, 

Earl of March, ancestress of the 

t 1424. Yorkist kings. 



72 



RICHARD II. 



[1387. 



claimed the crown as the descendant of Henry III. It 
was said that his ancestor was the elder brother of the 
first Edward, and had been passed over on account of 
his humpback. Probably this was not true. At all 
events, Henry was elected king by Parliament, and 
took the title of Henry IV. 




A GOLD NOBLE OF EDWARD III., STRUCK BETWEEN 1360 AND I369. 



1300.] ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 73 



CHAPTER XII. 

ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

IN many ways the fourteenth century marked an 
epoch in the history of the English people. Let 
us stop a moment and see why this is so. In the first 
place, the fact that Richard was deposed proved to be 
of the very greatest importance. It was then estab- 
lished that the nation might depose the king if it 
wished. Years after, when this question again came 
up, in the time of James II., statesmen, turning back 
to find a precedent, relied on this one. In the next 
place, the English common people were every day 
acquiring more power and influence in the state. We 
have seen how the Commons began to sit by them- 
selves, and we have seen how, . in the rise of copy- 
holders, the serfs began to free themselves from their 
servile obligations. Then, too, although the last part 
of this period was a time of almost constant war, it 
was also a time of great extension of trade. This was 
due in a great measure to the fact that the king could 
no longer seize the property of the merchants to pay 
his expenses, but was obliged to get their consent to 
taxes through their representatives in the House of 
Commons. 

It must not be supposed, however, that men's ideas 
on commerce were in those days like our own. At 
that time men saw, as some think they see to-day, that 



74 ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. [1300. 

as gold and silver could be exchanged for anything, 
they formed a nation's whole wealth. Going one step 
Financial farther, they believed that a country would be 
policy, rich acC ording to the amount of gold and silver 
actually within its borders. The more gold and silver 
England could draw from France and other countries, 
the richer she would be. The way to accomplish this 
was to sell as much wool, leather, and tin to foreigners, 
and buy as little from them, as possible; the balance 
being paid in gold and silver. But we now know that 
gold and silver are only commodities, like wool and 
leather, and that a nation cannot become richer by 
piling up within its borders more of any one thing 
than it can use. 

Now, these wars of Edward the Third introduced 
England to the outside world, and gave Englishmen 
„, , an idea of the comforts and fashions of foreign 

Clothes. & 

lands. The effects were soon seen. Instead of 
the coarse, rough English cloth they formerly wore, 
men now began to wear colored clothes. The hose, 
which used to reach from the waist to the foot, were 
now divided at the knee, and the upper portion came 
to be called small-clothes. The most ridiculous things 
were the new-fashioned shoes, which sometimes were 
three feet long. Then, too, rugs and carpets began to 
take the place of rushes on the floors of the wealthier 
classes, and furniture, which up to that time had been 
very poor and scarce, began to be more plentiful and 
of much better quality. 

All these new fashions gave rise to an extended 
commerce, which the king encouraged as well as he 
Com could. But he saw with alarm the wool of 
merce. England exchanged for fine clothes and carpets 



1300.] THE GUILDS. 75 

rather than for gold, and many attempts were made to 
regulate this foreign trade. It was determined, in the 
first place, that certain towns should be designated as 
" staple towns," from the German word stapel, because 
in them a fair, or market, was kept open the whole 
year. Only in these places could wool, leather, lead, 
and tin be sold. At one time the laws were so strict 
that only a portion of the price of English goods could 
be exchanged for foreign goods, the remainder being 
paid for in gold and silver. At that time England 
was almost the only country where wool and tin were 
produced in large quantities. And as long as these 
laws could be carried out, gold and silver flowed into 
England. Gold was then very scarce, and silver was 
the principal medium of exchange. This silver was 
coined into money at the rate of two hundred and forty 
pennies to each pound of silver by weight. Thus we 
see the origin of the name "pound," which is still 
used in England as the standard of value, though a 
pound of silver would purchase much more wool and 
leather then than it will now. 

It must not be supposed that any one could go to 
a town where a fair was kept, and buy and sell for 
himself; far from it. Rights to trade and to The 
manufacture were then granted to certain per- § ullds - 
sons or sets of persons, either for money or as favors. 
Sometimes the merchants of one town would combine 
into one trade-society, or guild ; but more often there 
were several guilds in each town, as of leather-dressers, 
tailors, silversmiths, etc. Each of these guilds gov- 
erned itself, and took full charge of all goods made by 
its members, oftentimes putting its mark, or stamp, on 
the goods as a proof of their purity and goodness. The 



y6 ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. [1300. 

guilds of each town often had a share in its govern- 
ment, and the guildhall often answers very well to our 
town-hall. At this time, however, the beginning of 
the end of the guild system 
could be seen. This was 
due to the rise of a free 
laboring class, who worked 
by the day. They were 
hence called "journeymen," 
from the French word Jour, 
or journee, a day. These 
and other labor- 
ers flocked to the 
towns in great num- 
bers, largely because of 
the privileges enjoyed by 
those living in towns; 
and their presence in the 
end gave a severe blow to 
the exclusive system of the 
guilds. 

This century also marks 
the rise of the English Ian- portrait of geoffrey chaucer. 
guage as we now know it. 

This was the time of Geoffrey Chaucer, the first great 
Rise English poet, and of Wycliffe, who may be re- 
Engiish garded as the father of English prose. English 
language. was a ] so usec i in the courts, and took the place 
of French as the language of the upper classes. 




V 

I399-] RISE OF THE COMMONERS. J? 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE FIRST TWO LANCASTRIAN KINGS. 

NEXT to Richard, the rightful heir to the throne 
was Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, since he 
was descended from the second son of Edward III. 
Henry was really a usurper, and ruled merely as being 
the king elected by Parliament. He was thus Henry 
obliged to keep on good terms with Parlia- ?' 
ment, and also with the Church. To please h^)* 
the Church he assented to an Act against heresy. 
Under this law a man once declared to be a heretic 
by the Church was handed over to the civil govern- 
ment for execution. This was commonly by fire ; and 
the first Englishman burned as a heretic was William 
Sawtre. 

Henry was obliged to consent to the demands of 
Parliament. In this way the Commons obliged him to 
have the money voted by them accounted for. Riseof 
The Commons also obtained the right to origi- the com - 

m oners. 

nate all laws granting money, and the king was 
even forced to allow perfect freedom of debate in both 
Houses of Parliament. Henry made these concessions 
in order to secure the support of the people in main- 
taining himself on the throne. 

In 1399 there was a sudden rebellion of the great 
lords friendly to the Earl of March. But as the king, 
with a force of Londoners, was driving them to the 



yS THE FIRST TWO LANCASTRIAN KINGS. [1413. 

West, the people of Cirencester, led by their mayor, 
surrounded and captured them, and executed several 
before the king arrived. The same year wit- 
lion nessed Richard's death; though whether he was 
1399 " murdered or not, no one really knows. In time, 
however, events turned in Henry's favor, and by 1400 
he was secure on his throne. 

Henry's last years were not happy. A dreadful 
disease tormented him, and it seemed as though his 
eldest son, the Prince of Wales, wished to be king 
before his time. At least that is the story; and the 
old king was so jealous of his son that he had him 
removed from the council. In 141 3 Henry IV. died. 

One of the greatest evils of this time was what was 
called the "right of maintenance." The great lords 
Mainte- were accustomed to have in their service large 
nance, bodies of men, often old soldiers, who attended 
them when they went to Parliament, into court, and 
on other occasions. These men wore the liveries, or 
badges, of their masters, and were always armed and 
ready to fight. It thus happened that the great earls 
and dukes had small regular armies always at call, and 
it was this force of retainers that formed the founda,- 
tion of the armies which fought in the Wars of the 
Roses. 

The new king came to the throne so quietly that it 
seemed hardly possible he was the son of a usurper. 
Henry He had led a wild life in his youth, which is de- 
C1413- scribed in Shakespeare's play of "Henry IV. ; " 
1422). but w h en ne ascended the throne he became 
serious and patriotic. There was great discontent 
under the surface. The religious reformers called 
Lollards especially were so active that Henry may 



I4I5-] 



ATTACK ON FRANCE. 



79 



have thought this the be- 
ginning of another Wat 
Tyler's rebellion. At any 
rate, he took sides with 
the churchmen against the 
Lollards, and forty of the 
reformers were burned at 
the stake as heretics. 

For the moment the ef- 
fort after reform seemed 
to be suppressed. Still, 
it might break out again 
at any time, and Henry 
resolved to divert Eng- 
lishmen's minds Attackon 
from their own France - 
wants and grievances by 
the conquest of France, — 
as if causing distress to 
any one nation would make 
another happier. Apart 
from this motive, which, 
after all, may not have 
been the true one, it was 
a good time to invade 
France. The French king 
was insane, and his eldest 
son, called the Dauphin, 
who ruled during his 
father's madness, quar- 
relled with the king's 
brother, the Duke of Bur- 
gundy 
of Burgundy was the most 




Now, this Duke effigy of a knight at clehonger, 

SHOWING DEVELOPMENT OF PLATE- 
ARMOR. DATE, ABOUT I460. 



80 THE FIRST TWO LANCASTRIAN KINGS. [1420 

powerful man in France, and he and Henry of England, 
working together, soon had France at their mercy. 

Just as Henry was about to leave England, however, 
a plot to set the young Earl of March on the throne 
A . was discovered. Henry's uncle, the Duke of 
cour t Cambridge, and some of the king's most trusted 

advisers were in the plot. They were executed, 
and the expedition set sail. The campaign was very 
much like that of Cressy. A great battle was fought 
at Agincourt, — a battle well described in Shake- 
speare's "Henry V. " The English were victorious, 
and, laden with booty and prisoners, they returned 
to England. 

Two years later, in 14 17, the invasion was renewed. 
This time the English advanced as far as Rouen 

unopposed. The Dauphin and the Duke of 
Troyes Burgundy now made peace, but the latter was 

soon after murdered by order of the faithless 
Dauphin. Then the new Duke of Burgundy forgot 
all love of country in a desire for revenge. At 
Troyes he and Henry made a treaty, by which the 
English king agreed to marry the French king's 
daughter Katharine, and to rule France during her 
father's life as regent. After his death, Henry was 
to be king of France, and his son after him. The 
Dauphin was thus disinherited. All patriotic French- 
men gathered round him ; but at the time they could 
do nothing but wait. Two years later Henry died, 
and was buried with the greatest magnificence in West- 
minster Abbey. Above his tomb may still be seen 
his helmet and saddle. 

Henry V. should be remembered not only as a 
great soldier. He saw the real path to greatness for 



1422.] INCREASE OF THE ENGLISH NAVY. 8 1 

England, and by extending commerce in every pos- 
sible way he contributed to the material prosperity 
of the next century. He increased and reformed the 
English navy, which has ever since been powerful 
and famous. 



THE CLAIMS OF YORK AND LANCASTER. 

Edward III. 
I 

i ~~n i i i 1 

Edward the William, Lionel, D. Edmund, John of Gaunt, Thomas, D. of 

Black Prince, f 1335. of Clarence. D. of York. D. of Lancaster. Gloucester. 

! I 



Richard II., Philippa m. 

deposed. Mortimer, E. of March. 

Roger, E. of March. 
I 



Henry IV. Anne. 

Henry V. Humphrey. 



Edmund, E. of March, Anne m. Richard, E. of Henry VI. 
t 1424. Cambridge, | 

t 141 5. Edward (never 
Richard of York, killed at reigned). 

Wakefield. 



Edward IV. Richard III. 



Thus, Richard of York inherited not only the claims of the House of York, but, 
through his mother, those of the older House of Clarence. 



82 HENRY VI. [1422. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HENRY VI. 
1 422-1 46 1. 

THE abilities of Henry V. were so great, and his 
conquests so splendid, that the bad policy of his 
French invasion did not appear until after his death. 
His son, an infant of eleven months, succeeded 

Regency ' 

ofBedford to the throne, and during his minority his 
Giouces- uncles, the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, 
governed for him. 
Bedford was an exceedingly able man, and for a time 
all went well. In 1428, however, he laid siege to 
joan of Orleans. The English would probably have 
Arc - taken the town, had not a new foe appeared 
in the most unexpected way. This was Joan of Arc, 
a peasant girl of Lorraine. She believed that Michael 
the archangel and other holy personages had person- 
ally ordered her to go to the Dauphin's aid. Her 
appearance at court aroused the enthusiasm of the 
soldiers; and seeing this, the counsellors of the 
Dauphin gave her an army, and told her to save 
Orleans. Now, this spirit of enthusiasm was what the 
French soldiers most needed. Adversity and practice 
had made them good soldiers, and able leaders were 
not lacking; but hitherto they had fought without 
spirit. Joan of Arc put new life into them. She 
marched to Orleans, and attacked the English first on 
this side, then on that. The Englishmen were as 



145°.] JACK CADE'S REBELLION. 83 

superstitious as the French. They believed Joan of 
Arc to be a witch. The siege was abandoned, and 
soon after the Dauphin was crowned king of France. 
The next year, however, Joan of Arc fell into the hands 
of the English, and was burned alive. But the spirit 
she had aroused did not perish with her. In 1435 the 
Duke of Bedford died, and after his death one place 
after another was lost, till, in 1453, of all the English 
conquests Calais alone remained in their hands ; and 
thus ended the Hundred Years' War. 

During these later years of disgrace and failure Wil- 
liam de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, had ruled the king- 
dom through his influence with the young king's Earl of 
wife, Margaret of Anjou. Upon him the people Su olk * 
laid the responsibility for the loss of France. The 
king, to save his life, banished him for five years; but 
on his way to France he was seized and executed. 

This was in 1450, and in the same year a rebellion 
broke out in Kent. Led by Jack Cade, who called 
himself Mortimer, the rebels marched to Lon- T , 

Jack 

don. They murdered many nobles and other Cade's 
persons obnoxious to them, and then began 
plundering London. The Londoners turned them 
out, and some time after Jack Cade was captured 
and executed. It has been thought that the king's 
cousin, Richard, Duke of York, was at the bottom of 
this plot. 

This Richard of York was the son of that Duke of 
Cambridge who had plotted against Henry V. as he 
was setting out for France. Through his Richard 
mother he inherited the claims of the Earl of °f X 01 * 

claims the 

March, who had been passed over when Henry throne. 
IV. ascended the throne. His right to the English 



84 HENRY VI. [1455 

crown was better, therefore, than that of the reigning 
king. Now, it happened at this time, as it had so 
often happened before, that the Plantagenets not in 
power opposed those who were. And it is a little 
singular to see the same families fighting for the Duke 
of York as had fought for Henry IV. against Richard 
II. before Henry became king. In other words, a cer- 
tain portion of the great families of England were 
always in opposition to the existing government. The 
Lancastrians took for their badge a red rose, while the 
Yorkists adopted a white rose ; and it is for this reason 
that the troubles which followed are called the Wars 
of the Roses. 

If Henry VI. had been a strong, able man, like his 
father and grandfather, these wars would probably 
The never have occurred. He was not only always 
Wars of weak and feeble, but unfortunately was sub- 

the 

Roses ject to fits of insanity. These attacks gave the 
Duke of York abundant opportunity to carry out 
his schemes. The two parties soon came to blows. 
In 1455 tne Lancastrians were beaten, and the king 
fell into the hands of the Yorkists ; but he was soon 
released. In 1459 ne was a gai n captured, and now the 
Duke of York came forward and claimed the crown in 
right of his mother. Finally, it was agreed that the 
king should continue to rule during his lifetime, but 
that at his death the crown should pass to the Duke of 
York and his heirs. 

In this way the young Prince of Wales was disin- 
herited. It could hardly be expected that the queen 
Edward would see her son thus treated. Gathering an 
York. army in the North, she marched towards London. 
At Wakefield she met the Yorkists and defeated them, 



i 4 6i.] 



FORTY-SHILLING FREEHOLDERS. 



85 



the Duke of York being killed during the battle, 
or put to death immediately after it. But his son 
Edward, a lad of nineteen, was still alive. Getting a 
small army together, he pushed on to London, reach- 
ing it before the queen, whose soldiers wasted time 
in plundering by the way. The people of London 
declared for Edward, and he was proclaimed king at 
Westminster as Edward IV. And thus ended the 
reign, though not the life, of Henry VI. 

The most important constitutional event of this 
reign was the restricting the right to vote in counties 
for members of the House of Commons to those Forty- 
who owned land in the county to the value of f^" ing 
forty shillings a year. In this way copyholders holders - 
and others were deprived of the right to vote ; and this 
remained the law until 1832. 




ROYAL ARMS AS BORNE BY HENRY IV. AFTER ABOUT 1408, 
AND BY SUCCESSIVE SOVEREIGNS DOWN TO 1603. 



86 THE YORKIST KINGS. [1461. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE YORKIST KINGS. 
1461-1485. 

THE crown was scarcely on Edward's head when 
he left London, and marched northward to meet 
the Lancastrians. He found them at Towton, and 
there overthrew them. He now felt reasonably secure 
Edward on the throne, and so he might have been, but 
(J461- for kis marriage with Elizabeth Woodville. 
1483)- She was a beautiful woman, but did not belong 
to any of the great families. The marriage angered the 
Yorkist nobles, who became more angry when Edward 
raised her father to the peerage, and in many other 
ways increased the importance of her family. This 
was especially displeasing to the head of the Neville 
family, the great Earl of Warwick. He had really 
placed Edward on the throne, and was known as the 
king-maker. Finally he secured the aid of the King's 
brother, the Duke of Clarence. Small insurrections 
broke out, and for a time Warwick even kept Edward 
a prisoner; but in 1470 Warwick was forced to flee to 
France. There he found Queen Margaret, and chang- 
ing sides, he placed himself at the head of the Lancas- 
trians, and returned to England. Edward in turn was 
forced to fly, and for a time Warwick ruled in the 
name of poor mad Henry VI. The next year, however, 
Edward came back, overthrew Warwick at Barnet, and 



I48a] MURDER OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE. 8? 

Queen Margaret at Tewkesbury, and once more ruled 
as king. Warwick the king-maker perished at Bar- 
net, the young Prince of Wales at Tewkesbury, and 
only the old king remained. And he too soon died, 
murdered, it was said, in the Tower by Edward's 
brother, Richard of Gloucester. 

His rivals and enemies being out of the way, Edward 
set out on an invasion of France. He got some money 
in a regular way from Parliament, and raised Invades 
more by what were called "benevolences; " that France - 
is, he summoned the merchants before him, and asked 
them for money under this name. No one dared re- 
fuse, and he set out for France. Now, the king of 
France at that time was Louis XL, one of the most 
crafty men who ever sat on the French or any other 
throne. Seeing Edward's greed for money, he thought 
it would be much cheaper and better to buy him off 
than to fight him. Edward was not unwilling, and in 
this way his invasion of France came to an end. 

The only other striking event of his time is the 
murder of the Duke of Clarence. Edward had long 
suspected his brother of treason. He now for- Murder 
mally accused him, and the Peers convicted him Duke of 
of treason. A few days later he was found dead clarence - 
in the Tower, drowned, the story is, in a butt of Malm- 
sey wine. Not long after Edward himself died, a 
victim to intemperance. In some ways Edward was 
not a bad king. He preserved order throughout the 
kingdom, at least during the latter part of his reign. 
This was of great advantage to the producing classes. 
In many other ways the king showed himself the friend 
to commerce, even engaging in it himself. 

Edward the Fourth left two sons, — Edward, Prince of 



88 THE YORKIST KINGS. [1483. 

Wales, and a younger brother Richard, Duke of York. 
Edward was but thirteen years old, and he reigned 
less than three months. Indeed, he can scarcely Edward 
be said to have reigned at all. From the v. 
very first, his uncle Richard, Duke of Glouces- H 3 
ter, seems to have determined to make himself king. 
Getting possession of the two boys, he sent them to 
the Tower, which was then used as much for a palace 
as a prison. He then made himself Protector, ruling 
in his nephew's name. Next he got rid of the Ri c h ar d 
principal members of the queen's party, and then 5Jg 3 _ 
claimed the crown for himself. On July 6, 1483, *&$)• 
he was crowned at Westminster as Richard III. ; and 
not long after the young King Edward V. and his 
brother disappeared, smothered, it was said, by Rich- 
ard's order. But this, like other stories of Richard, 
may be false. Until recent years almost all historians 
have given Richard a very black character. They have 
also added that he was a humpback, and was very ugly 
in person. We really know very little about him, and 
most that we do know is derived from writers of the 
Tudor period, whose interest it was to say all they could 
against Richard. At all events, his reign was so short 
and troubled that he had little chance to show what- 
ever good there may have been in him. It is now 
supposed, however, that he was by no means bad look- 
ing, and that his back was straight. Very likely some 
of the other stories about him had as little foundation 
as his hump. 

All the old rivals of the House of York had been 
killed on the field of battle or murdered; but The 
a new rival now appeared in the person of Tudors. 
Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Through his mother 



1485.] THE TUDORS. 89 

he was descended from John of Gaunt, though his 
family had been excluded from the succession; but 
the Beauforts, of course, had never acknowledged the 
right of Parliament to do this. The claim at its best 
was not good for much. But Henry Tudor determined 
to win the throne for himself if he could. He soon 
won many Yorkists over to his side by promising to 
marry Edward IV. 's daughter Elizabeth; but his early 
attempt ended in failure. 

The people of England, however, were fast coming 
over to Henry's side; for Richard had raised money 
by means of a forced loan, and had shown favor to new 
men who were dependent upon him for their position 
and wealth. Especially he had placed great confi- 
dence in three men named Ratcliffe, Catesby, and 
Lovel. So much favor had he shown them that people 
went round shouting this doggerel: — 

" The Rat, the Cat, and Lovel our Dog 
Rule all England under the Hog." 

In fact, he became so unpopular, and his own party 
cared so little for him, that when Henry Tudor came to 

LANCASTERS AND TUDORS. 

Edward III. 

I 

Blanche m. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster m. Katherine Swynford. 



Henry IV. John Beaufort, Marquis of 

Somerset. 

Henry V. m. Katharine m. Owen Tudor John. 

of France. | 

Henry VI. Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond m. Margaret. 

Prince Edward. Henry, Earl of Richmond. 

crowned Henry VII. of England. 



9 o 



THE YORKIST KINGS. 



[1485. 



England in 1485 he marched almost unmolested to the 
middle of the island. The two rivals met on Bos- 
worth Field. Richard's two most powerful ad- 
of Bos- herents proved faithless to him, Lord Stanley 
even joining his stepson Henry during the fight. 
In the battle Richard was killed, and at its close the 
Earl of Richmond was greeted as Henry VII. 




A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY SHIP. 



END OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 91 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SOCIAL CHANGES DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

AS we have already seen, the feudal system had 
begun to break down as early as the Second 
Richard's time. The introduction of gunpowder, by 
which a common man, armed with a fire-arm, became 
as dangerous as the knight in full armor, per- 
haps more so, hastened this decay. During the Mid- 
the Wars of the Roses the great feudal families * 
practically destroyed one another. And in this way, 
by the beginning of Henry VII. 's reign, the feudal 
structure of society in England may be said to have 
perished. A new era opened, not only for England, 
but for the civilized world. Columbus, sailing west- 
ward from the Canaries in search of a passage to India, 
first saw the New World in 1492. Five years later John 
Cabot, sailing under a license from Henry VII., dis- 
covered the northern continent. Upon this discovery 
of John Cabot rested the claims of the English sover- 
eigns to the most habitable part of America. 

This discovery of a new world beyond the Atlantic 
might have produced little result, and even been for- 
gotten, had not another discovery already come 
into common use. This was the art of printing, 
which was introduced into England in 1469 by Caxton, 
who had acquired the art in Flanders. Before this 
time the only way of multiplying books was by 



92 SOCIAL CHANGES IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

copying by hand. This was not only slow, but very 
expensive. When Caxton set up his printing-press he 
was by no means a young man. Yet so eager were 
people for books that before he died he had either 
written or translated and printed sixty works. Learn- 
ing began to flourish, and in the next century England 
emerged from a state of semi-barbarism, and during 
Elizabeth's reign produced the greatest works in the 
English language. 

Another thing which marked the beginning of a new 

era was the decay of villeinage, or serfdom. This 

was brought about in part by the Roman 

Abolition & • i 

of villein- Catholic priests, who induced many rich men 
to free their serfs. Of course, in the long 
run, this was beneficial to the lower class and to the 
country; but for a while there was much suffering. 
In feudal times a man's importance depended upon 
the number of his followers. His only desire then 
was to make his land support as many persons as pos- 
sible. Now, however, with the growth of trade and 
commerce, a man's importance depended more upon his 
wealth than upon any other single thing. Men only 
desired to get as much profit from their land as possi- 
ble. In old days when the serf became sick or feeble 
he was taken care of, though not very tenderly, by his 
master. Now he was free, and was turned off, if he 
became useless, and another hired in his place. Then, 
too, it was often more profitable to raise sheep for 
their wool than to raise wheat. But it takes fewer 
men to tend sheep on a hundred acres than it takes 
to raise crops on those same acres; and in this way 
many men lost their occupation. Then again, under 
the old system of landholding, agriculture was very 



I 

LOSS OF POWER BY PARLIAMENT. 93 

slack. Now, however, under the leasehold system it 
was for the interest of the tenant to make as much 
as he could out of his holding. He therefore hired 
as little help as possible, making those in his employ 
work a great deal harder than they had worked before. 
In one way or another, therefore, vast numbers of 
men were thrown out of employment in the country. 
They flocked to the towns, where the capitalists stood 
ready to hire them by the day or week. We have 
already seen the beginning of this. Xow, however, 
laborers streamed to the towns in such numbers that 
what was called the "guild" system, by which each 
trade managed its own affairs, was weakened, and the 
system of open competition, such as we now have, 
began to prevail. 

During this century Parliament, instead of gaining 
more power, had lost much that it had possessed. In 
the House of Lords the old nobility had almost Loss of 
disappeared. In its place was a new nobility, g^_ by 
as yet dependent on the king and devoted to ment - 
him. The House of Commons, too, had lost much of 
its strength. We have seen how the right to vote had 
been restricted in the counties. In the towns, or 
"boroughs," too, the same process had gone on. In 
the older time all freemen in the boroughs had voted. 
But gradually, in many boroughs, a small circle of men 
secured all powers of government ; and in this way, 
while the town, or borough, grew, its ruling class 
remained stationary or decreased in number. As 
these men elected the members of the House of 
Commons for their borough, the commoners ceased 
to represent the people at large. Xow, it is easy to 
see that the smaller the number of men voting for 



94 SOCIAL CHANGES IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

a member of Parliament, the easier it was for the 
Government to intimidate or bribe enough voters to 
give them a majority in the House of Commons. In 
this way Parliament, during the whole Tudor period, 
became little better than a tool of the king and his 
ministers. 

One important gain had been made, though it did 
not bear fruit till later times. In the old days the 
Money two houses had drawn up petitions asking the 
bllls - king to grant certain laws. The king often con- 
sented to a petition, and then, after getting the money 
he wanted, and dissolving Parliament, so changed the 
law that, when it was finally passed, those who had 
asked for it could not recognize it. Now the two 
houses began to draw up the laws themselves, and 
present them to the king for his consent. At first, 
however, it was a change only in form. But the time 
was coming when the Commons would refuse to grant 
money for the king's use until he had assented to their 
bills, as these petitions now came to be called. The 
machinery, in other words, was all ready for the gov- 
ernment of the country by the House of Commons ; it 
only remained to bring a class into power which could 
and would use the machinery. And discerning men 
could already foresee the coming importance of the 
middle class, composed of merchants, shopkeepers, 
and small farmers, — a class destined in time to rule 
the House of Commons, and through it to govern 
England. That time was to be long deferred ; but the 
beginnings were now made. And that is why with 
the reign of Henry VII. modern English history may 
be said to begin. Let us now study the doings of 
these Tudor sovereigns. 



1485.] ATTEMPT OF SIMNEL. 95 



CHAPTER XVII. 

HENRY VII. 

1485-1509. 

THOUGH Henry had been brought to the throne 
as the leader of the Lancastrian party, he really 
became king because there was no one to oppose him. 
To make his title more secure he had himself elected 
king by Parliament, and married Elizabeth of Henry's 
York, daughter of Edward IV. In many re- P 0Sltl0n - 
spects his position was like that of Henry IV., and 
throughout his reign he was always careful to keep 
within the law. He also enforced the law with great 
strictness, encouraged commerce in every way, and 
avoided war as much as possible. In short, his quiet, 
strong rule was precisely what England needed to 
enable her to make good the waste of the civil wars. 
It must not be supposed, however, that Henry was left 
to enjoy the throne in peace. 

One of his first acts had been to imprison the young 
Earl of Warwick, son of that Duke of Clarence who 
was said to have been drowned in a butt of . 

Attempt 

Malmsey. In 1487 a young man appeared in of 
Ireland, and pretended to be this same Earl of 
Warwick. His real name was Lambert Simnel; and, 
invading England, he was captured, and made an assis- 
tant to Henry's own cook; but his followers were 
treated with great severity. 



96 HENRY VII. [1498. 

A more dangerous claimant soon appeared, styling 

himself Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. He 

declared that when his brother, Edward V., 

Attempt ' ' 

of was murdered in the Tower, his own life had 

'been spared. His real name was probably 
Perkin Warbeck. But whoever he was, he had been 
so well schooled in his part that he deceived many 
people who should have been able to detect an im- 
postor. After living in France and Burgundy, he 
went to Scotland and married Lady Katharine Gordon, 
a kinswoman of the Scottish king. He then tried to 
invade England, first from Scotland, and then by way 
of Cornwall, where there happened to be some discon- 
tent. Both attempts failed. In 1498 he was captured, 
taken to London, and he and the Earl of Warwick, 
trying to escape, were both executed. No one, even 
to this day, really knows whether Perkin Warbeck was 
an impostor or the son of Edward IV. 

The remainder of his reign Henry devoted to 
strengthening his position by marrying his children to 
, foreign princes and princesses. Some of these 
foreign marriages were of great importance, especially 
that of his daughter Margaret to James IV. of 
Scotland, as their descendant was Mary, Queen of 
Scots, whose son, James VI. of Scotland, afterwards 
became king of England. 

Owing to the disturbance of the civil wars, crime 
had for a long time gone on unchecked. Indeed, it 
The seemed impossible to carry out the laws, one 
s° a u r rt0 reason being that juries would not convict. 
Chamber. Henry therefore instituted a new court, called 
the Court of the Star Chamber, where offences were 



1509] 



THE COURT OF STAR CHAMBER. 



97 



tried without a jury. At first this court was used 
to suppress crime. But during later reigns it became 
an instrument of tyranny, and was then greatly de- 
tested. In 1509 Henry VII. died, and was succeeded 
by his son, Henry VIII. 




TUDOR ROSE (WHITE AND RED) : FROM THE GATES OF THE CHAPEL 
OF HENRY VII. 



98 HENRY VIII. [1509. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

HENRY VIII. 

1 509-1 547. 

THE young king — for the eighth Henry was only 
eighteen years of age when his father died — had 
many things in his favor. He was handsome, well- 
educated, and soon rendered himself popular by per- 
secuting the men his father had employed to 
Spanish extort money. These men had always kept 

marriage. . . . . , .. . , 

within the law, but they were none the less 
hated. He then completed the marriage with his 
brother's widow, Katharine of Arragon, daughter of 
the king of Spain. This marriage, or rather the 
breaking of it, proved to be of such great consequence 
to England and to all Englishmen that we must stop 
a moment and see who Katharine was, and why Henry 
had delayed for years to carry out his part of the mar- 
riage agreement. In the first place Katharine was the 
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, under whose 
license Columbus had sailed on his famous voyage for 
India. It was in their time, too, that all of what we 
now call Spain was united under one rule. Katharine's 
nephew Charles, soon to become emperor as Charles 
V., was by far the most powerful man of his time. 
It was natural, therefore, that Henry should not 
wish to offend the great house of Spain, and be- 
sides, at that time Englishmen regarded Spain as 



i5°9-] 



HENRY VIII. 



99 




HENRY VIII.: FROM A PAINTING BY HOLBEIN ABOUT 1536, 
BELONGING TO EARL SPENCER. 



IOO HENRY VIII. [1513- 

their natural friend. How this last feeling came to 
be changed we shall see before long. There was one 
thing against this marriage, and that was that the law of 
the Roman Catholic Church — the canon law, as it is 
sometimes called — did not allow a man to marry his 
brother's widow. This prohibition was based on the 
Old Testament, and is still the rule in some countries, 
including England. The Pope, however, was very 
anxious to please Katharine's family, and granted 
to Henry and Katharine a release, or dispensation, 
from the operation of the law, and so they were speed- 
ily married. 

It will be remembered that Henry VII. had wisely 
kept out of war whenever it was possible. His son, 
War w i t h however, was less pacific, and was soon at 
France. war w ith France, fighting on the side of the 
Spaniards and Germans. The war amounted to little, 
though the English won a strange victory at Guinegaste 
in Flanders, where the French ran away so fast that 
it came to be known as the "Battle of the Spurs." 
As had happened so many times before, the French 
king thought the best way to meet the English attack 
would be to stir up the Scots, so in this same year the 
Scots invaded England; but all Englishmen were not 
in France, though the king was. Led by Lord Surrey, 
the English attacked the Scots at Flodden Edge. 
King James IV. of Scotland, Henry's brother-in-law, 
was killed on the field, the Scottish force was com- 
pletely broken up, and soon after a general peace was 
made. 

Henry's chief adviser during these first years of his 
reign was Thomas Wolsey. This great statesman 
was of respectable birth and well educated, and by 



1519] CARDINAL WOLSEY. IOI 

his great talents and industry raised himself from 
one position to another till he became chancellor, 
Archbishop of York, a cardinal, and even legate of 
the Pope in England. As legate he possessed cardinal 
all the power which the Pope would have Wolse y- 
exerted had he been personally in England. From 
his decision in matters of religion there was no 
appeal. In this way the English people became 
accustomed to having all power in church and state 
centred in their own government ; and when, in a few 
years, the king was declared the head of the English 
Church, instead of the Pope or his legate, it did not 
seem so strange to the people as it would have at 
one time seemed. Wolsey was a very far-seeing man. 
He saw that the time was not far off when a refor- 
mation of the Catholic Church would be demanded in 
such a way that it could not be resisted. He wished 
to save the Church by reforming it from the inside 
rather than by having the reform forced upon it by 
those outside. For this reason he had become legate, 
and he actually began reforms in the Church in Eng- 
land. For the same reason, too, he desired to become 
Pope. It so happened that at this time there was 
an election for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. 
Charles I. of Spain, who was also Archduke of Austria, 
had the best claim ; but Francis I. of France also put 
in a claim, and so did Henry. Charles was elected, 
and war between him and Francis was sure to follow. 
Both tried to secure the aid of England, and Francis 
entertained Henry in a most regal way on a plain 
afterwards called the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 
because of the splendor there displayed ; but Wolsey 
and Henry had other plans. Even before this meet- 



102 HENRY VIII. [1528. 

ing, Charles had visited England secretly, and by 
promising his aid to Wolsey in the matter of the elec- 
tion of a new Pope, had led England again to take the 
side of Spain and Germany. Soon, however, there 
was a change. Charles beat Francis so completely as 
to no longer need the aid of England ; and when the 
election for a new Pope came off, he worked against 
Wolsey. So Henry and Wolsey changed sides, and in 
1528 made an alliance with France. In other ways, 
too, Henry abandoned the Spanish alliance. 

He had never loved Katharine, and as years went by, 
and son after son died soon after birth, he began to 
have conscientious scruples about the rightful- 
divorce ness of the marriage. These scruples, even if 

from ...... , . , 

Katha- they were genuine in the beginning, which many 
people doubt, were greatly increased when he 
fell violently in love with Anne Boleyn, a lady of his 
court, and a granddaughter of that Thomas Howard, 
Earl of Surrey and Duke of Norfolk, who had won the 
great victory at Flodden Edge. The king first applied 

THE HOWARDS. 

John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, 
killed at Bosworth. 

Thomas, Earl of Surrey, victor of Flodden, 
restored to the dukedom. 



Thomas 


1 1 I 
, Duke of Edmund. William, Lord Thomas Boleyn m. Elizabeth 


Norfolk. Howard of Effingham. 




Katharine m. Henry VIII. 


Anne Boleyn m. 




executed 1542. 


Henry VIII., executed 1536 


Henry, Earl of 






Surrey, executed Charles, 2d Lord Howard of 




1547. Effingham, defeats 




| Armada, 1588. Queen Elizabeth. 


Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, 


exe 


cuted 1572. 







1529.] henry's personal rule. 103 

to the Pope for a divorce from Katharine, claiming 
the original marriage to have been illegal. Ordinarily 
the Pope would have made no difficulty in complying 
with such a request ; but just at this time it happened 
that he was actually shut up in the Castle of St. 
Angelo in Rome by Charles the Fifth's army. It 
could hardly be expected that he would still further 
offend Charles by declaring his aunt Katharine's mar- 
riage illegal; so he tried to put off any decision, 
and finally, in 1529, ordered the matter to be tried 
before him at Rome. Wolsey had assured the king 
that the divorce would be granted, and when it was 
not allowed, Henry lost all patience. Wolsey was dis- 
missed from all his offices, and his property was con- 
fiscated to the Crown. It is true that by accepting the 
office of legate he had done an illegal act ; but he had 
done it at Henry's special request. Henry the Eighth, 
however, never remembered such things when a man 
had offended him. Wolsey had extorted money in 
many illegal ways, and it was attempted to make his 
offences treason. The first attempt, owing to the 
exertions of his former servant, Thomas Cromwell, 
failed, and while coming to London to stand trial on 
a later charge he died. 

When Wolsey was out of power and place, the king, 
for the first time in his reign, looked about him with 
his own eyes. From that moment, though he 

& Henry's 

employed able men in his service, Henry the personal 
Eighth ruled England. And he ruled England mle ' 
as few kings have ruled before or since. His political 
instincts and abilities were indeed remarkable. In 
many ways Henry was a brute and a tyrant. His 
mind was despotic, and he did many things that no 



104 HENRY VIII. [1532. 

one likes to recall. Let it be said, therefore, to his 
credit, that it was owing mainly to his sagacity and 
firmness that England was spared the religious wars 
and persecutions to which France, Germany, and Spain 
were subjected. Henry saw very clearly that the peo- 
ple would be on his side in a struggle with the Pope. 
Not that Englishmen were not Catholics so far as doc- 
trine and belief went. But they wished for some 
reformation in the government of that Church in Eng- 
land. A few years before, Henry had become so 
angry with Luther, the German reformer, that he had 
actually written a book against him, for which the 
Pope had given him the title of "Defender of the 
Faith." The title is still borne by English monarchs; 
but it was not long before the Pope must have thought 
Henry very undeserving of it. In 1529 a Parliament 
met, and the House of Commons, under the guidance- 
of Thomas Cromwell, entered heartily into the work 
of reforming the Church in England. Sir Thomas 
More, Wolsey's successor as chancellor, was unwill- 
ing to go as far as Henry desired, and before long 
Cromwell became the king's chief adviser. 

In 1532 all appeals to the Pope were forbidden; and 
this being against the wish of the Archbishop of Can- 
The terbury, he resigned. In his stead was placed 
statute Thomas Cranmer, a scholar of Cambridge, who 

against ' & ' 

appeals had already suggested many things to Henry. 
' The question of the legality of the marriage 
with Katharine was immediately brought before him 
in his archbishop's court, and a decision given in 
Henry's favor. The king then acknowledged his mar- 
riage with Anne Boleyn. In a short time a daughter, 
the Princess Elizabeth, was born, and Parliament, 



534] 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



105 




SIR THOMAS MORE, WEARING THE COLLAR OF SS : FROM AN 

ORIGINAL PORTRAIT PAINTED BY HOLBEIN IN 1527, 

BELONGING TO EDWARD HUTH, ESQ. 



declaring the children of Henry and Anne to be the 
true heirs of the crown, disinherited Katharine's 
daughter, the Princess Mary. . 

The reformation of the English Church, however, 
did not stop with the divorce of Katharine. The 
Pope excommunicated Henry, and declared the divorce 



106 HENRY VIII. [1536. 

to be of no account. Almost in self-defence the 
king was obliged to break with the Pope. Parlia- 
The ment passed law after law. Payments of any 
church ^ind by the clergy to Rome were forbidden. 
England. p or fae future all such payments must be made 
to the king. Bishops should no longer be appointed by 
the Pope, but should be chosen according to the king's 
command. Many changes, too, were made in the dis- 
cipline of the Church in England. Even the clergy 
were glad to admit the right of Parliament to regulate 
the affairs of the Church, to pay a large sum of money 
to the king, and even to acknowledge him to be " Su- 
preme Head on Earth of the Church of England." 
In fact, it was dangerous to deny this title; for 
the Act of Supremacy, passed in 1534, declared 
any one who should do this guilty of high treason. 
Among the first to refuse this recognition was Sir 
Thomas More, and by his prompt execution Henry 
showed how terribly in earnest he and his advisers 
were. 

In England, as in all other Catholic countries, 
there were then two classes of persons called, techni- 
pestruc- cally, "religious," — the secular and regular. 
thTmon- Tne former were the parish priests and their 
asteries. SU p er iors, as far as the archbishops. The latter 
were men and women who had taken vows to live 
according to certain rules and regulations. With 
few exceptions, these were gathered into convents 
and monasteries and other places where they lived 
together. Now the monks and friars had great in- 
fluence with the people, and so far the reforms in the 
English Church had not touched them. On the con- 
trary, they were working hard to arouse the people 



1 539-] DESTRUCTION OF THE MONASTERIES. 107 

against Henry and his reformation. Probably it was 
necessary for his own safety to put a stop to this ; but 
Henry acted here, as always, with harshness, urged on, 
no doubt, by Cromwell, and inspired by the thought 
of the riches to be obtained. For years it had been 
known that in some of these monasteries the monks 
led far from holy lives. It was determined to send a 
commission to inquire into the condition of them all. 
This commission acted in a very despotic manner, and 
obtained evidence oftentimes in most discreditable 
ways. There probably was some truth in its report, 
but there must have been a great deal of falsehood. 
At all events, it was decided to suppress the monas- 
teries and other like establishments. In 1536 the 
smaller ones were suppressed, and three years later the 
larger ones shared their fate. The wealth poured into 
the king's treasury was enormous. Some of it was 
used for religion, some for new fortifications; but most 
of it found its way into the pockets of Henry's minis- 
ters and friends. As it turned out, this was the very 
best thing that could have happened. Had the king 
and his successors kept this wealth in lands and goods, 
and managed it with any shrewdness, there would have 
been no more appeals to Parliament for money. The 
English king would have been as despotic as any 
monarch of Christendom. Whoever obtained in this 
way the lands of an abbey or monastery became The 
a firm opponent of the Roman Church, and a sup- thifde- 
porter of the Reformation in England. Many struction - 
of the most important families in England date their 
worldly prosperity from this time. This suppression of 
the monasteries produced another great result. The 
control of the House of Lords passed into the hands 



108 HENRY VIII. [1536. 

of the lay peers. Up to this time three classes had 
sat in the upper house, — the lay peers, like the Earl 
of Surrey, the archbishops and bishops, and the mitred 
abbots. These last two, forming the spiritual peers, 
outnumbered the lay lords. But when the abbots dis- 
appeared, the House of Lords took on its modern shape 
of a body composed of the wealthy landowners and 
great soldiers and statesmen of England. And as the 
lay peers from this time on increased with much 
greater rapidity than the spiritual peers, the political 
importance of the latter has decreased, till now they 
have almost no political importance at all. 

Before the suppression of the monasteries had pro- 
ceeded very far the cause of the break with Rome her- 
Execu- self disappeared. It is possible that Anne 
Ann^ f Boleyn may not have acted with all the dignity 
Boieyn. becoming a queen. It is more likely that 
Henry had become tired of her, and charged her 
with evil conduct as the easiest way of getting rid 
of her. At all events, in 1536 she was beheaded. 
The king then married Jane Seymour, who lived 
long enough to give birth to a boy, afterwards King 
Edward VI. 

Meantime the Reformation had been making rapid 
progress. Everywhere there was great eagerness to 
The six r ead the Bible. Neighboring families joined in 
Acts. iYiq purchase of one, and a copy was kept chained 
to the reading-desk in every parish church. In fact, 
the Reformation had gone farther than Henry or the 
great mass of Englishmen desired it to go. In all 
matters of doctrine and belief he was a good Catholic, 
and refused to allow any change in those respects. 
His opinions were expressed in six statutes, called the 



1 539-] LAST YEARS OF HENRY VIII. IO9 

Six Acts, passed in 1539. But Henry would allow 
no persecution, and several times when the bishops 
had put these Acts into execution. Henry interfered, 
and released those imprisoned. By this time the in- 
fluence of Cromwell, who wished to go much farther, 
had become greatly weakened. It had been one of his 
pet schemes to marry Henry to one of the Protestant 
princesses of Germany, and thus bring him under the 
influence of German Protestantism. Unfortunately 
the princess selected, Anne of Cleves, proved to be 
very ugly. Henry was obliged to marry her; but he 
soon separated from her, giving her a pension. For 
Cromwell the affair was more serious. Like Wolsey, 
he had been very arbitrary, and had made many ene- 
mies. The king was furious with him on account of 
the marriage; so he withdrew his favor, and 
Cromwell was declared guilty of treason by an o-om- 
Act of Parliament, and executed without any 
trial. This was done by an "Act of Attainder," 
which was passed like any law. It is a little singular 
that the precise form this took at that time had been 
devised by Cromwell, and further that he was the first 
to be thus put out of the way. 

The king had two more wives, — Katharine Howard 
(Anne Boleyn's cousin, who soon turned out to be un- 
desirable), and Katharine Parr. The latter was Last 
already a widow, and was also a woman of great Henry 
sagacity. She humored Henry in every way, vm - 
and so pleased him by her care and attention that 
she not only contrived to outlive him, but even to 
secure a great influence over him. Henry was now 
getting old and feeble. He had grown so stout that 
it is said he could not walk. Every one but himself 



no 



HENRY VIII. 



[1547 



saw his end was soon coming, and a great strife began 
as to who should rule during the minority of his son. 
The Howards, with Norfolk at their head, thought 
they had the best right; but the king's jealousy was 
aroused, and Surrey was executed. Norfolk would 
have followed him, had not Henry died before the 
time set for the execution. The Howards were quite 
opposed to all reform in religion, and they were re- 
sisted by the Seymours, the uncles of the Prince of 
Wales, and liberals in religion. By Henry's will 
and an Act of Parliament the succession to the crown 
was given to Edward, then to Mary, then to Elizabeth; 
and if these had no children, to the heirs of Henry's 
younger sister Mary, thus passing over the descendants 
of his sister Margaret, who had married the King of 
Scots. 

THE TUDORS. 



Henry VII. 
I 



Henry VIII. 



I I I 

Edward VI. Mary Elizabeth 

(son of Jane (daughter (daughter 

Seymour), of Katharine of Anne 

of Arragon). Boleyn). 

r~ 



r— I 

Margaret, married Mary, married 

(1) James IV. of (1) Louis XII. of 

Scotland, France ; 

(2) Archibald Douglas, (2) Charles Brandon, 



Earl of Angus. 



James V. of 
Scotland. 



Margaret Douglas m. Matthew Stuart, 
I Earl of Lenox. 



Duke of Suffolk. 



Frances m. Henry Grey, 
Duke of 
Suffolk. 



1 1 r 1 . 1 

Mary m. Henry Stuart, Charles Stuart, Lady Jane Grey m. Guil- Katharines. 
Queen of | Lord Darnley. Earl of Lenox. ford Dudley Edward 



Scots 
James VI. of Scotland, crowned 
James I. of England. 



Seymour, 
Earl of Hertford. 

Edward, Lord 
Beauchamp. 

Arabella Stuart m. Sir William. Seymour 



547-] THE SCOTTISH WAR. Ill 



CHAPTER XIX. 

EDWARD VI. 

1547-1553- 

WHEN Henry's will was opened it was found that 
he had appointed sixteen executors to govern 
the kingdom during his son's minority. He expected 
these executors to act in a very cautious way. so that 
there should be as few changes as possible when 

t- i 1 t . ■ , . Protector 

Edward took the government into his own Somer- 
hands. As a matter of fact the very opposite 
was done. The Seymours got all power into their 
hands, and the Earl of Hertford, the head of the family 
and uncle to the young king, was made protector. He 
soon made himself a duke, with the title of Somerset, 
and is known in history as the Protector Somerset. 

Now Protector Somerset was an able man, and a 
very well-meaning man too. But he lacked the neces- 
sary patience and steadfastness of purpose to 
govern a great kingdom in such troubled times. Scottish 

TT .~ r-i • • ■ i o war. 

His first failure was in connection with Scot- 
tish affairs. Henry had very much wished to marry 
Edward to his cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. In this 
way the two kingdoms would have been united; but 
the prejudices of the Scots had prevented the marriage. 
By waiting, these prejudices might have been over- 
come; but Somerset would not wait. He sent an 
army to Scotland, defeated the Scottish forces, and so 



112 EDWARD VI. [1553. 

" by the manner of the wooing" disgusted those hith- 
erto favorable to the marriage that they sent the young 
queen to France, and married her to the Dauphin. 

Somerset, too, tried to push on the reformation of 
religion faster than people wished. Images were pulled 
Progress down, the painted walls of the churches covered 
Reforma- w ^ tn whitewash, an English service-book was 
tion. prepared, and the Six Acts were repealed. 
There were other causes of discontent, and the re- 
sult of everything was a series of rebellions which 
Somerset proved unable to suppress. Dudley, Earl 
of Warwick, now came to the front. Taking command 
of the army, he crushed the rebellions, and then 
Somer- overturned Somerset, making himself protector. 

set 

A few years later, Somerset tried to regain 
his power, and was beheaded. Warwick and the other 
executors now set themselves to work to make their 
own fortunes, regardless of the welfare of the kingdom. 
They also found it necessary still to press on the 
Reformation. Among those who refused to change 
their religion was the Princess Mary. This made it 
all the easier for Warwick, now become Duke of 

Northumberland, to persuade Edward, who was 
Jane an ardent reformer, to appoint Lady Jane Grey 

his heir. This Lady Jane was descended from 
Henry VIII. 's younger sister Mary. She was a 
Protestant and the wife of Northumberland's son, 
Lord Guilford Dudley. Soon after he had signed this 
will Edward died of consumption, though there were 
not wanting persons who thought he had been poisoned. 
The Lady Jane was crowned queen, but her reign, if 
reign it can be called, lasted only nine days, as will 
presently be seen. 



I553-J 



MARY TUDOR. 



113 



The Princess Mary had managed to keep out of 
Northumberland's grasp, and people flocked to her 
from all sides. No one then knew what a nar- Mary 
row and bigoted person she was. They did Tudor - 
know what a hateful person Northumberland was, and 
they were resolved to deprive him of power. Then, 
too, Mary's right to the crown was the better, and 
England was resolved, whatever might happen, that 
the Wars of the Roses should not begin again. 




ANGEL OF HENRY VIII., 1543. 



114 MARY THE CATHOLIC. [1553. 



CHAPTER XX. 

MARY THE CATHOLIC. 
I553-I5S8. 

THE central idea of Queen Mary's short reign, 
which lasted for only five years, was the restora- 
tion of the old religion in England. She wished, not 
merely to restore things as they were at the beginning 
Mary's °f Edward's reign, but to connect England once 
policy. more with the Roman Catholic Church as it 
had been connected before the time of Henry VIII. 
Parliament, as was usual in those days, was in the 
hands of the sovereign's friends. Everything was 
done as Mary wished, till it came to restoring the 
property confiscated from the monasteries. But so 
many members of Parliament were interested in keep- 
ing those lands in their own hands that any such 
general restoration of the property of the Church was 
plainly impossible. Mary, however, gave back what- 
ever the Crown still possessed of the spoils, which, 
indeed, was not very much. Before long, Northum- 
berland was beheaded, though he tried at the last 
moment to save his miserable life by declaring that he 
had always been a good Roman Catholic. 

Mary then married her cousin, Philip II. of Spain, 
like herself a strong Roman Catholic. But English- 



i55.ll 



MARY MARRIES PHILIP OF SPAIN. 



115 




QUEEN MARY TUDOR : FROM A PAINTING BY LUCAS DE HEERE, 
DATED I554, BELONGING TO THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. 



men were so much opposed to this match that Philip 
was given no share in the government of the s , 
country, and it was agreed that England should marries 

J ,° fe Philip of 

never be called on to defend Philip's possessions. Spain. 



Il6 MARY THE CATHOLIC. [1555. 

It could hardly be expected that the friends of the 
Reformation would stand idly by and make no attempt 
Risin s to sto P tnese proceedings. A rebellion broke 
in out, and was put down with some difficulty. 

England. ' r J 

The rebels designed placing Anne Boleyn's 
daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, on the throne. But 
so prudent had been her conduct, guided as she was by 
William Cecil, that she could not be connected directly 
with the plot, from whose success she would have been 
the chief gainer. For the remainder of Mary's reign, 
however, she was kept a close prisoner at Woodstock. 
The unfortunate Lady Jane Grey and her husband did 
not fare so well. Although but seventeen years of 
age, Lady Jane Grey was executed, and within a few 
days at least eighty persons were hanged in London 
alone. 

Her rivals being thus killed or imprisoned, Queen 
Mary thought she could with safety coerce the people 
The of England into becoming good Roman Catho- 
martyrs. y lcs ^ or b urn them if they resisted or refused. 
It was easy enough to get Parliament to pass laws by 
which this might be done legally, though Parliament 
probably never once dreamed of the length to which 
bigotry would be carried. The Pope, on his side, 
gave way a little, and received England back into the 
bosom of the Roman Church, though the Church lands 
were not restored. The most notable victim of this 
persecution was Archbishop Cranmer, who had pre- 
sided at the trial at which Mary's mother was divorced 
from King Henry. Cranmer was now a feeble old man, 
and to the feebleness of age might perhaps be attributed 
his brief submission to the Pope. But it did not last 
long ; and when the time came for him to make his con- 



1558.] MARY'S DEATH. 117 

fession in a public manner, he recanted everything, and 
declared his unworthy right hand, which had written 
the letter of submission, should be the first part of 
him to be burned, and so indeed it was. The other 
bishops burned were Hooper, Rogers, Ridley, and 
Latimer. The last two were burned at the same time ; 
and it is related that as the fires were lighted, Latimer 
said to his companion : " Play the man, Master Ridley ; 
we shall this day light such a candle in England as by 
the grace of God never shall be put out." He was 
right ; for to these and other similar burnings was due, 
more than to any other one thing, the permanent sever- 
ance of England from the Roman Church. In all, 
more than two hundred persons were burned. When 
compared with similar persecutions on the Continent, 
these numbers seem small, and it must always be re- 
membered that it was a time of great bitterness of 
feeling; and that we know of these persecutions mainly 
through writers who were disposed to make the most 
of everything which was to the disadvantage of the 
Roman Catholics and Mary. It is certain, at any rate, 
that the people of England did not at all like such 
proceedings, and that nothing did more to make Eng- 
lishmen into Protestants than these same burnings 
and other cruel punishments. 

In fact, Mary is to be pitied as well as blamed. She 
was personally so unattractive that Philip soon left her 
to look after his own affairs on the mainland. Mary's 
No child was born to them, and it soon became death - 
evident that the time was not far off when Mary's 
diseased body and mind would pass away, and her 
hated Protestant sister Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's 
daughter, become queen. To add to these misfor- 



Ii8 



MARY THE CATHOLIC, 



J558. 



tunes, in spite of the agreement made when Philip and 
Mary were married, England became involved in war 
with France; and in the course of that war Calais was 
captured by the French, and never after regained by 
the English. Whatever else she was, Mary was a true 
Englishwoman and a Tudor, and she once said that if 
any one could take out her heart and look at it, the 
name of Calais would be found written on it. This 
blow, added to her other griefs, was too much for her, 
and the worn-out, wretched, and almost insane woman 
died. 




A MOUNTED SOLDIER: FROM A BROADSIDE PRINTED IN 1596. 



[558.] CHARACTER OF THE REIGN. 119 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ELIZABETH. 
1 5 58-1 603. 

IT has been customary to speak of Queen Mary as 
" Bloody Mary," and of Queen Elizabeth as " Good 
Queen Bess." The truth is that they were very much 
alike. Both were cunning, deceitful women, Elizabeth 
being by far the abler. Mary was almost of 
necessity a believer in the Pope's supremacy, terofthe 
while all Elizabeth's interests pointed in the re 
other direction. In religion, apart from this question 
of the supremacy of the Pope, Elizabeth seems to have 
thought herself a good Catholic. She had no sym- 
pathy with those who wished even a moderate refor- 
mation of the church service. During the first part 
of her reign, at all events, she had religious service 
in her chapel with all the ceremonies of the Roman 
Catholic Church. But she was determined that the 
Church of England should be separated from the 
Roman Catholic Church, as it had been separated in 
the time of Henry VIII. Elizabeth inherited from her 
father all his great powers of government and of state 
management. Like him, she knew how to surround 
herself with strong, able men, and, like him, she knew 
how to place on their shoulders the responsibility of 
questionable or unpopular actions. In her dealings 
with the Parliament and with the nation she was as 



120 



ELIZABETH. 



[1558. 




QUEEN ELIZABETH IN 1588 : AFTER A DRAWING BY 
ISAAC OLIVER. 



1558.] WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH. 121 

arbitrary as her father had been, but she also knew 
when to yield. Her reign, therefore, was one of the 
most successful, if not the most successful, in English 
history. A moderate reformation was effected in the 
Church, though her refusal to go a step farther pre- 
vented that Church from ever becoming national ex- 
cept in name, and gave rise to the Puritan opposition, 
of which we shall learn more hereafter. Then by her 
steady refusal to go to war, except in self-defence, 
Elizabeth gave to England a long period of compara- 
tive peace, at a time when great inventions and dis- 
coveries were coming into common use, and while 
England's commercial rivals were engaged in the most 
destructive of all wars, those for religion. This gave 
England a chance to grow so strong that when the 
struggle came, as it did come, even the power of Philip 
of Spain could not harm her. This period of growth 
also enabled England to take that lead in commerce 
and the arts of peace which she has ever since main- 
tained. Elizabeth's reign, too, is renowned as the time 
of Shakspere and the other writers of the Golden 
Age of English literature. More important, perhaps, 
than the progress in these various directions .were the 
reforms in the administration of the government. 

Elizabeth was undoubtedly a great ruler. But she 
had in her service men whose counsel more, perhaps, 
than her own powers, kept England free from William 
foreign entanglements, and permitted the nation Lord 
to work out its own salvation. Chief of these Burleigh. 
was William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh. He 
had been Elizabeth's adviser even before she became 
queen. To his counsel it is probably due that she had 
held aloof from the plots of Mary's time, and could 



122 



ELIZABETH. 



[1558. 



never be connected directly with them. These plots 
had always revolved about her, their aim having been 
to set her upon her sister's throne : yet she could never 




WILLIAM SHAKSPERE : FROM THE BUST ON HIS TOMB AT 
STRATFORD-ON-AVON . 



If much of this good fortune was due 



be implicated. 

to Cecil, as much was probably due to Elizabeth's 

own cunning and power of deceit. Indeed, no English 



1558.] THE CALVINISTS. 123 

sovereign seems to have excelled her in this ability to 
deceive. It was partly born in her; but the circum- 
stances of her early life were congenial to its growth. 
In fact, after her coronation, she and Cecil had need 
of all their ability and shrewdness to keep their country 
free. Never had the position of England and Eng- 
land's ruler been more precarious than during the first 
thirty years of this reign. 

The hardest task Elizabeth and Cecil had to face was 
the reformation of religion. Elizabeth was declared to 
be the supreme governor of the Church in Eng- The 
land. Thirty-nine articles of faith were drawn £ f hurch 
up, and a service-book was put forth. This En g ]and - 
last was based on that of Cranmer. The service was 
to be in English. By the Act of Uniformity this book 
was required to be used in all churches throughout the 
land, and no other service was allowed. Any one not 
attending the regular church was fined. It seems that 
Elizabeth and Cecil wished to build up a really 
national Church, and to have a form of service that all 
might attend. Thus the celebration of the mass was 
forbidden, and the service was to be read in English. 
This was to please the advanced reformers. Then, to 
please the Catholics, the dress of the clergy and many 
ceremonies disliked by the radicals were retained. 
Nor would Elizabeth consent to the marriage of the 
clergy. In fact, she wished to take a position between 
the two extremes which her father had occupied. But 
the times had changed. Mary's harshness had T heCai- 
driven many to the Continent. There these vimsts - 
exiles became intimate with the Calvinists and other 
advanced reformers. It is important to understand 
what Calvin's doctrines really were, for their influence 



124 ELIZABETH. [1559. 

upon England, and upon our own country also, has 
been immense. 

First of all, Calvin was a religious reformer. As 
such he went far beyond Luther in his plans, and 
wished to throw away all the ceremonies and associa- 
tions which had grown up around the Roman Catholic 
Church, except such as were commanded in the Scrip- 
tures. But it is as a social reformer that he is more 
interesting to us. He desired to remodel society, so 
that it might represent the society described in the Old 
Testament. He thus introduced a form of government 
which was then new in Europe. He thought that all 
society, whether in church or state, should be founded 
on the individual man. He believed that the best 
form of government would be obtained through men 
collected in congregations, and through congregations 
governed by elected councils. The heads of a Church 
founded on this model would be supreme in the land. 
They could explain the lawof God to king or peasant. 
The power of these men proceeded from below, and the 
historian John Richard Green has therefore said : " It 
is in Calvinism that the modern world strikes its roots; 
for it was Calvinism that first revealed the dignity of 
man." This equality of baron and shoemaker before 
the law of God and man is the basis of all democratic 
society; but it is really incompatible with monarchy. 
Now these ideas of Calvin were being introduced into 
England by the reformers returning from abroad, and 
The numbers of men were eagerly accepting them. 
Puntans. 7/hese men were called Puritans, because they 
wished to purify the Church. They regarded them- 
selves as good members of the Church of England. 
They had no desire to separate from that Church, but 



1 559-] THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 125 

only refused to conform to all its ceremonies. For exam- 
ple, the use of the surplice was to them very distaste- 
ful, as it reminded them of the Pope and their former 
connection with the Roman Church. They disliked 
many other ceremonies which were retained, but in all 
matters of doctrine they seem to have believed very 
much as did other members of the Church. As time 
went on, other sects arose. Especially there were 
some Puritans who went farther than the great mass of 
them were then willing to go. They refused longer to 
remain in the Church, and separated from it, and were 
hence called Separatists, and were also known as Brown- 
ists, from the name of an early leader. But the Puri- 
tans, whether merely Nonconformists or Separatists, 
saw that in Elizabeth's continued occupation of the 
throne lay their only chance for safety, or even for tol- 
eration of any kind. The next heir to the throne was 
Mary, Queen of Scots, and she was an ardent Catholic. 
So the Puritans supported Elizabeth loyally, although 
they had persecutions to endure even under her. In 
the reign of King James these persecutions continued 
and increased, and led, some years later, to the col- 
onization of a New England across the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

As has been already said, the Puritans felt the need 
of supporting Elizabeth, even if she did persecute 
them; and so Elizabeth and Cecil felt, on their The 
side, the need of support from the Puritans, even catho" 
if their doctrines tended to the overthrow of gov- llcs - 
ernment by king and bishop. It seems probable that 
at her accession two-thirds of the English people were 
Roman Catholics. Her changes in the ritual were 
so few that the great mass of them attended without 



126 ELIZABETH. [1559. 

difficulty the new service. It is said, indeed, that 
only two hundred out of nine thousand priests resigned 
their livings. In time, as the old priests died, and 
others took their places, a gradual change came over 
the Church, and men almost without knowing it be- 
came really Protestant. But a powerful minority 
remained true to the old faith. To them the divorce 
of Mary's mother had been illegal, and Elizabeth was 
an illegitimate child. As such she had no right to the 
throne. To them, therefore, Mary, Queen of Scots, was 
the real queen of England, Elizabeth being a usurper 
whom it was their duty to overthrow. At the begin- 
ning of the reign, however, it happened, fortunately for 
Elizabeth, that her good-will was necessary to Philip 
of Spain, and so she was given time to consolidate her 
power before any further struggle came. 

We have seen how the Scots married their queen 
to the French Dauphin. In 1559 he became king of 

France, though he ruled only a year. If his 

Phili P IL \ u & , r i t , . 

queen should become queen 01 England too, 

France, Scotland, and England would be united under 

one ruler. That was something Philip of Spain could 

not allow, and he offered to marry Elizabeth. But 

she could not consent, without recognizing the right 

of the Pope to grant a dispensation. This of course 

she could not consistently do, and the project fell 

through. But for many years Philip and Elizabeth 

remained the best of friends. In 1560 Francis II. 

died, and Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to 
Queen of Scotland. Before long she married her cousin, 

Lord Darnley. Their child was afterwards 
James VI. of Scotland and I. of England. But be- 
fore long, Darnley was murdered, and in 1568 Mary 



£56o.] 



MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. 



127 




MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS : FROM THE MEMORIAL PORTRAIT 

DONE IMMEDIATELY AFTER HER DEATH, AND 

NOW AT WINDSOR CASTLE. 



fled to England and asked protection from her kins- 
woman Elizabeth. Now we really know very little 
about Mary, except that she was beautiful, fascinating, 



128 ELIZABETH. [1568. 

and inherited the Scottish throne by clear right. Some 
people say that she was an accomplice in Darnley's 
murder, and rewarded the murderer, Bothwell, by mar- 
rying him. Others tell a somewhat different story. 
She may not have been so bad as many think, but she 
probably was false and treacherous. At all events, 
she did not gain much by coming to England. Eliza- 
beth alone would certainly have been a match for her. 
But with Elizabeth, Cecil, and Walsingham leagued 
together against her, Mary of Scotland was doomed 
from the first. 

It is not easy to understand this part of Elizabeth's 
reign. But if a few points are kept in mind, the story 
Foreign will not seem so complicated as it at first sight 
pohcy. i 00 k s# As yet the fate of English Protestantism 
hung on Elizabeth's life. Parliament urged her to 
marry, or at least to name a successor. Both these 
things she steadily refused to do. To us looking 
back it is now clear that she was wise in this. As 
long as Mary was the next heir to the throne, she 
was almost compelled to keep quiet, that she might 
become queen on Elizabeth's death. Elizabeth de- 
clined, therefore, to name any one else as her succes- 
sor, and either from jealousy or for some other cause, 
refused to name Mary. For the same reason Elizabeth 
was unwilling to marry. Should she marry a foreigner 
like Philip, there was sure to be trouble of one kind or 
another. Should she marry an Englishman, all other 
Englishmen of equal rank would be offended. So she 
would marry no one, though she held out great hopes 
to many. Then with regard to foreign relations, at 
first sight her whole policy seems in confusion, Eliza- 
beth doing this thing to-day, that to-morrow. But she 



I570-] ROMAN CATHOLIC PLOTS. 1 29 

had a difficult part to play, to keep on the good side 
of France and Spain, and at the same time to do all 
in her power to hurt and weaken them. It happened 
that the religious wars in foreign countries were a 
great help to her, for they kept the foreigners so busy 
at home that there was no time to attack England. In 
France the Protestants, or Huguenots, were struggling 
for existence, and Elizabeth sent aid to them in va- 
rious ways, though really she aided them as little as 
possible. As long as the Huguenots seemed to be 
doing well, she acted rather defiantly with regard to 
Spain. But when the Catholics began to get the 
upper hand in France there was nothing too good to 
be said to Philip. At last the Protestants of the 
Netherlands revolted against Spain. This was a great 
help to Elizabeth, and she encouraged them with 
money, for whose repayment she took possession of 
certain towns. Beyond that she would not go. So in 
every way Elizabeth had to be very careful, and the 
Pope was not long in adding to her cares. 

Mary had hardly arrived in England before the 
Roman Catholics formed plots to put her on the throne. 
The earlier plots were put down, and Mary was 
kept in strict confinement. But in 1570 the Catholic 
Catholics were roused to action by a bull, or p ° 
proclamation, of the Pope of Rome excommunicating 
Queen Elizabeth, and releasing her subjects from 
their allegiance. Priests and emissaries »of all kinds 
were sent to England to stir up the Catholics and to 
recall the lukewarm Protestants to their ancient faith. 
The nation was called upon to take sides in religion, 
and it took the Protestant side. This bull roused 
against the Roman Catholic Church the independent 

9 



130 ELIZABETH. [1570. 

spirit of the English people, and England was lost to 
the Roman Church. From that moment there was 
little hope of recalling her to the old faith by peaceful 
means. Plots were discovered to assassinate the 
queen, and a panic swept through England. These 
schemes were made, of course, in the interest of Mary, 
and Parliament wished to put her out of the way by 
a Bill of Attainder, as though she were an English 
subject. But Elizabeth would not consent. While 
Mary lived, she felt that there would be peace. But an 
association was formed for the queen's protection, and 
to avenge her death in case she should be murdered. 
Severer laws were made against the Catholics, and the 
fines against non-attendance at the authorized service 
were enormously increased. There seems to have been 
little attempt made to carry out these laws against 
Court of laymen. But woe to the priests who fell into 
Cofnmis- tne nan ds of the Government! For them a 
sion. special court was set up. Elizabeth was the 
supreme governor of the English Church, and she 
delegated a portion of her authority to a commission 
consisting of the archbishop and other leading men, 
ordering them to inquire into and punish offences 
against the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. Be- 
fore this court the accused person was brought, and 
compelled to answer under oath whatever questions 
might be asked him. Those who did not answer were 
tortured. All forms of law and all the safeguards of 
English liberty were forgotten. While this great 
engine of oppression was directed against the Catho- 
lics only, there was little outcry. When, however, it 
was later used against the Puritans it aroused fierce 
opposition. Neither the queen nor the archbishops 



1586.] EXECUTION OF MARY. 131 

seem to have cared very much about a man's thoughts, 
but they were determined he should keep them to him- 
self, unless they were in harmony with the ideas of 
the Church. This the Puritans refused to do. They 
preached and taught on all sides as long as they were 
allowed to preach and teach. In truth, it was not long 
before the bishops silenced the outspoken ministers. 
The Puritans then resorted to the printing-press ; and 
as nothing could be printed without the consent of the 
archbishop, they used a press which was kept moving 
about the country. It seemed as though nothing could 
stop these attacks on the bishops and the English 
Church. The most famous pamphlets were signed 
Martin Mar-Prelate. Even to this day the name of 
the writer is not known, but a man named Penry was 
executed as the author. 

It had been impossible to connect Mary directly with 
any of the earlier plots to kill the queen. But in 1586 
the Government was able, by its spies, to prove ^ 

J . Execu- 

that Mary knew of a plan to assassinate her. tionof 
Whether the plot really existed is not abso- Queen of 
lutely clear. Some writers have thought it was cots ' 
merely a scheme got up by the Government to entrap 
Mary. At all events she was convicted, and, Eliza- 
beth's consent having been obtained, was executed. 
What Elizabeth had feared now came to pass. Mary, 
disliking her son, who was a Protestant, left her claims 
to the throne of England to Philip of Spain, and he, as 
a good Catholic, set about making them good. There 
were other and perhaps stronger causes that made 
him attack England. Elizabeth had sent aid to the 
Dutch; and the English sailors, led by men like Haw- 
kins and Drake, were endangering the Spanish control 



132 ELIZABETH. [1588. 

of the West Indies and the Pacific coast of America. 
The English were also beginning to found colonies on 
the Atlantic coast of North America, though up to this 
time their settlements had not been successful. So 
Philip decided to send a great fleet to England, and 
with it the army which, under the Duke of Parma, 
had been fighting in the Netherlands. It had been 
intended to send this Armada against England in 1587, 
and provisions and ships were actually gathered at 
Cadiz. But the English under Drake sailed into the 
harbor one day, and destroyed so many of the vessels 
and so much of the provisions that the attempt was 
The in- abandoned for that year. The next year, 1588, 
vincible the Armada actually sailed from Lisbon for 

Armada. J ... 

Dunkirk, where the army was to join it, and a 
joint descent was to be effected on the English coast. 
The Armada numbered about one hundred and fifty 
vessels, most of them large ships. 

At that time England had nothing properly to be 
called a navy. When the queen wanted vessels she 
called upon the seaport towns to furnish them. This 
was not so difficult then as it would be now, for in 
those rough days all vessels were obliged to go armed 
to protect themselves from sea-robbers and pirates. 
So a fleet of about seventy-five sail was collected, and 
with it Lord Howard of Effingham, Elizabeth's kins- 
man, went forth to meet the great Armada. With him 
were Hawkins and Drake and others experienced in 
fighting on the water. At the same time two large 
armies were made ready on shore to repel the Spaniard 
if he should attempt a landing. The Armada was soon 
seen sailing up the Channel in the form of a crescent. 
Hanging on its rear, the English cut off and captured 



1588.] 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 



133 




SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, IN HIS FORTY-THIRD YEAR: FROM THE 
ENGRAVING BY ELSTRACKE. 



or sank every ship that lagged behind. The Spaniards 
then anchored off Calais. But the English sent fire- 
ships among them, and compelled them to weigh 



134 ELIZABETH. [1588. 

anchor and run northward. The English fleet had by 
this time increased to perhaps one hundred and forty 
vessels of all sorts and sizes. But if their ships were 
smaller, they sailed better. Besides, the English even 
then were great sailors and sea-fighters. Their guns 
were better aimed than were those of the Spaniards. 
Indeed, it seems probable that had Queen Elizabeth 
not been so stingy with her powder and provisions, the 
English would have completely destroyed the Armada. 
As it was, after driving the Spaniards to the north, 
the English turned homeward, and many sailors who 
had nobly fought for their country and religion died of 
starvation on the way back. As for the Spaniards, 
many of them never returned home. Trying to regain 
Spain with their shattered ships by the north of Eng- 
land and the Irish Channel, they were met by a furious 
storm. Ship after ship was wrecked on the coasts of 
Scotland and Ireland, and it is said that of that mighty 
Armada only fifty-four vessels ever returned to Spain. 
The destruction of the Armada broke the power of that 
nation. The supremacy of the seas passed into other 
hands. Even with that supremacy it had been difficult 
for her to hold her vast empire together. From this 
time one possession after another was torn from her 
grasp. With the control of the Channel in the hands 
of the English, troops could not be sent to the Nether- 
lands, and the United Provinces became independent. 
Another Protestant power thus arose in Europe, des- 
tined ere long to stand side by side with England in 
the struggle for liberty. From the day when Drake 
chased the Armada north from Calais, England's 
power has gone on ever increasing, till on her empire, 
exceeding in extent even that of the second Philip, 



I494-] "POYNINGS' LAW." 135 

the sun never sets. We must now turn from this 
glorious scene, and begin our study of the most objec- 
tionable chapter in England's history, — her misgov- 
ernment of Ireland. 

As far back as the times of the Normans there had 
been some kind of an assertion of the right of the 
English king to be considered the ruler, or 
"overlord," of Ireland. But the relations be- mgs' 
tween the two islands and the two peoples did 
not become close till the time of Henry VII. It 
was in 1494 that, a Parliament of some kind having 
been assembled at Dublin, an Act, called "Poynings' 
Law," named after the English king's deputy, was 
passed. By this law no bill could be brought into the 
Irish Parliament until it had received the approval of 
the Government in England. Thus Ireland was put, 
as far as legislation went, completely under subjection 
to England. During Henry VIII. 's reign little at- 
tention was paid to Ireland, except to give to some 
of the Irish chieftains the title of earl. But during 
the minority of Edward VI. an attempt was made 
to establish the Reformed Church in Ireland. The 
attempt was a failure from the beginning, — partly 
because the Irish could not understand the service 
in English any better than when it was read in Latin, 
but more especially because the Roman Catholic 
Church was well suited to their habits and needs. 
Of course the attempt was abandoned at the accession 
of Mary. 

As we have already seen, Queen Elizabeth was deter- 
mined that there should be one religion in England, 
and only one. She soon became equally determined 
that there should be but one religion in England and 



136 ELIZABETH. [1590. 

Ireland, and that this should be the religion pre- 
scribed by the English Church, of which she was the 
The head. So the Acts of Supremacy and Uniform- 
bethan ity were extended to Ireland. Wherever English 
merit "of ^ aw cou ^ ^ e enforced there, the Roman Cath- 
ireiand. lic clergy were turned out, and Protestants put 
in their places. It was very difficult to get good men 
to go to Ireland, in fact difficult to get any one to go. 
It resulted that in many places the churches went to 
ruin, and no services were held at all. English law, 
however, could be enforced only in a very small part 
of Ireland. In the rest the Roman Catholic service 
was kept up. The Protestant Established Church was 
weak from the beginning, and was an object of con- 
tempt and hatred to the bulk of Irishmen. Thus was 
introduced an element of discord which has lasted to 
our own time. 

There were other causes of jealousy. At this time 
Ireland was under the control of three families, — the 
Geraldines, descended from the Norman Fitz-Gerald; 
the Butlers; and the De Burghs, or Burkes. Now, of 
these, the Butlers, led by Ormond, were Protestant, 
while the Geraldines, headed by Kildare and Desmond, 
were Catholics. The opposing forces were so arranged 
that it was impossible for the Butlers to be of much 
use to the English, cut off as they were by the Ge- 
raldines from the English part of the island. It was 
now proposed to send over English colonists to occupy 
a large portion of the lands of Desmond, he having 
relinquished his title to escape being tried for treason. 
It was hoped also that the courts would find defects in 
the titles to much more land held by the Irish. In 
this way it was thought to make a large portion of the 



1 598-1603.] ELIZABETH'S LAST YEARS. 137 

island English. But the first attempts were failures. 
To take an Irishman's land was to touch him in the 
tenderest part. A fearful insurrection broke out in 
Munster in 1569, and ten years later in Connaught. 
Both were put down with the greatest severities and 
almost unheard-of cruelties. In the northern province 
alone was the colonization a success. There was 
already a colony of Scots there; and Essex, the leader 
of the English in the enterprise, was an exceedingly 
able man. By 1584 the English were supreme through- 
out the island, though at a tremendous cost in suffering 
to the Irish. 

When the Armada had been driven away from Eng- 
land, Elizabeth was already an old woman. She had 
reigned thirty years, and the men whose advice Eiiza- 
and help had so far made her reign a success ^ s 
were rapidly passing away. Leicester, her years> 
favorite though incompetent commander, died while 
the rejoicings over the defeat of the Armada were still 
ringing in his ears. Sir Walter Mildmay, the founder 
of the Puritan College of Emmanuel at Cambridge, 
— the college from which our own Harvard is in 
a manner descended, — died in 1589. Walsingham, 
whose marvellous skill in ferreting out plots had saved 
Elizabeth's life more than once, followed in 1591. 
Finally, in 1598, after forty years of service such as 
few men have given to their sovereign and country, 
William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, passed away. Young 
men were now coming to the front. Prominent 
among them was Robert Cecil, Burleigh's son. His 
most formidable rival was Robert Devereux, Earl of 
Essex. Essex was not in any sense a statesman, but 
he had succeeded to Leicester's place in the queen's 



138 



ELIZABETH. 



[i 598-1603. 



affections, and become her favorite. Essex rapidly 
rose to prominence. In 1596 he and Lord Howard 
of Effingham led a successful expedition against Cadiz. 
But Essex did not gain all the advantages from this 




WELLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH, K. G., 1520-1591 ; FROM A 
PAINTING IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, OXFORD. 



success that he had expected, as most of the credit 
was given to Lord Howard. It is related that some 
time after this, in 1598, when the appointment of a 
deputy for Ireland was being discussed in the council, 
the queen said something displeasing to Essex. He 
turned his back on her, which so enraged Elizabeth 



1 598-1603.] ELIZABETH'S LAST YEARS. 1 39 

that she gave him a sound box on the ear. This story 
may be true or not, but one thing is certain, that when 
Burleigh died, in the same year, it was Robert Cecil, 
and not Essex, who succeeded to his place and power. 
The next year Essex went to Ireland as deputy. 
There he used his power in a very mysterious manner. 
Exactly what he intended is not clear. Perhaps he 
expected to create a government for himself in Ire- 
land. Perhaps he intended to use the Irish army 
against his enemies in England. At all events, he 
found it necessary to hurry back to England and try 
to regain the queen's regard. But with all her love of 
flattery, Elizabeth never allowed her personal feelings 
to interfere with her duties as queen. Essex was 
placed under restraint. Gathering about him several 
desperate characters (Sir Ferdinando Gorges among 
them), he tried to incite the Londoners to rebellion. 
The attempt failed. Gorges, with the most contemp- 
tible meanness, betrayed his friend. Essex was tried, 
condemned, and executed for treason. Whether he 
was justly executed or not, Elizabeth seems never to 
have recovered from the shock of his ingratitude. In 
1603 sne died, holding to the last the loyal love of the 
English people. 



140 STATE OF SOCIETY. [1558-1603. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



STATE OF SOCIETY. 



AS we have already seen, Queen Elizabeth's reign 
was very remarkable for the great material ad- 
vancement then made by England. Her foreign com- 
merce was greatly extended. The cruelties of the 
Com- Spaniards drove many (it is even said one half) 
merce. £ ^ Q merchants of Antwerp to London. The 
ruin of the former city and the supremacy of the latter 
date from this time. In Queen Elizabeth's time, too, 
the port of Archangel was discovered, and a trade with 
Russia opened. The East India Company and others 
like it were formed to trade with foreign parts, and from 
all directions wealth and luxuries poured into England. 
There was at the same time a great expansion of home 
industry. Hitherto English wool had been mainly 
worked up outside of England ; now the cloth was 
made at home. The same was true, though in a less 
degree, of the manufactures of steel, and from this 
time on, the names of Manchester and Sheffield began 
to be heard more and more. 

The country had been so long free from civil wars 
that the mode of domestic architecture had undergone 
Archi- a complete change. The turreted castle gave 
tecture. wa y to fa e hall of the Elizabethan time. Chim- 
neys took the place of the hole in the roof, and the 
master no longer ate with his dependants in the great 
hall, but withdrew to his parlor, — called for this reason 



1 558-1603.] 



ARCHITECTURE. 



141 



a withdrawing-room, and afterwards a drawing-room. 
Pewter dishes were beginning to take the place of the 
old wooden trays, though forks were not common until 
some time after Elizabeth's death. Nor were these 




COACHES IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. FROM " ARCH.EOLOGIA. 



improvements in the art of living confined to the very 
rich, for the moderately rich class, which was now 
coming into existence, enjoyed advantages which had 
been denied to the wealthiest of only a generation or 
two before. The lot of the laboring class, however, 
did not improve. 



142 STATE OF SOCIETY. [i 588-1603. 

The changes in agriculture which we have already 
described had gone on with increasing rapidity. Un- 
The poor doubtedly one cause of this was the fact that 
law - people were beginning to live very differently. 
But the suppression of the monasteries had much to 
do with it. The monks had been easy landlords. They 
had taken care of the sick and poor of their district, 
even going so far as to encourage begging by their 
indiscriminate giving. All this was now stopped. 
The new owner of the forfeited monastery lands wished 
to get as great a return from them as possible. Some 
he turned into sheep-walks, the rest he cultivated with 
care, employing, either by himself or through his ten- 
ants, as few laborers as possible. Masses of men were 
thrown out of work. The country became infested by 
vagabonds and beggars. Several remedies were tried. 
At last it was determined to make each locality, 
whether called parish or town, take care of its own 
poor. In this way the old principle of local responsi- 
bility was once more brought into use. There were 
other reforms in the same direction, but this making 
the parishes responsible for the poor within their own 
limits is the most important. The principal law was 
passed in 1601, and remained in force till 1834. The 
immediate effect of the new system was startling. In 
the time of Henry VIII. some two thousand robbers had 
been hanged each year. This number was now reduced 
to three or four hundred, although the population had 
greatly increased. 

It has been already said that English literature was 
carried to a high point in the reign of Elizabeth, 
Shakspere being its chief ornament. There was a 
whole circle of authors, — such as Marlowe, Ben Jonson, 



1558-1603. 



THE STUARTS. 



H3 



Massinger, Ford, Chapman, Beaumont, and Fletcher, — 
who have never since been equalled, as dramatic poets, 
by any similar group in any other age. The modern 
form of prose fiction had not yet been created; but 
people were fond of reading long narratives of imagi 
nary adventure, either in verse, like Spenser's " Faerie 
Oueene, " or in prose, like Sir Philip Sidney's "Arca- 
dia." Sir Walter Raleigh was not merely a great ex- 
plorer, but also an author; and wrote, while a prisoner 
in the Tower of London, his " History of the World." 
William Tyndale produced in this reign the first im- 
portant translation of the Bible into English. 

Scott's novel of " Kenilworth " gives a tolerably 
vivid picture of the society and manners of the Eliza- 
bethan period ; but these can best be studied in the 
actual literature of that period. 

THE STUARTS. 





Tames I. 
1 






ancestress of 
verians. 




Charles I. 




I 
Elizabeth. 
Hano 


1 

Charles II. 


1 

James II. 




1 
Mary m 


. William of 
Orange. 


1 

James, the Old 

Pretender. 

1 


I 
Axxe. 


M 


1 

\ry m. Willian 
King W 


i of Orange. 
ILLIAM III. 


Charles, the Young 
Pretender. 


1 

Henry, 
tiSo/. 





144 JAMES I. [1603 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

JAMES I. 
1 603-1 625. 

IT was well understood towards the end of Eliza- 
beth's reign that James VI. of Scotland, son of 
Mary of Scotland, and descended from Henry VIII. 's 
sister Margaret, would be Elizabeth's successor. After 
Elizabeth's death he was proclaimed King James I. of 
His char- England, and succeeded to the throne as quietly 
acter * as had any heir-apparent before him. It is a cu- 
rious fact that although he was the son of the most 
beautiful and attractive princess of that time, James 
was of very disagreeable and repulsive appearance. 
His face was plain and foolish, with a tongue so large 
that he could not help showing it all the time. His 
legs were very small and weak, so that he walked 
feebly and awkwardly; and this was noticed by the 
people all the more, because he wore a thick padded 
coat, for fear some one should stab him. He was very 
timid, and also false and obstinate, so that he was un- 
popular in character as well as peculiar in his looks. 
He had been well educated, and had a good deal of 
learning; but he had very little common-sense, and 
was called by the French minister Sully " the wisest 
fool in Christendom." 

He was hardly seated on his new throne before 
plots began to be formed against him, especially by 




SIR WALTER RALEIGH (1552-1618) AND HIS ELDEST SON WALTER, AT THE AGE OF EIGHT: 
FROM A PICTURE, DATED 1602, BELONGING TO SIR J. F. LENNARD, BART. 



146 JAMES I. [1605. 

the enemies of Robert Cecil, his Secretary of State. 
Among those who joined in these plots was the cele- 
brated Sir Walter Raleigh, so well known for 
Execu- . ..,.-. . ' 

tionof the interest he took in colonizing the American 

ieig ' continent. The plan of some of these conspira- 
tors was to dethrone James I. and give the crown to 
Lady Arabella Stuart, who, like James, was descended 
from Henry VII. The plot did not succeed; but it 
gave the king a great dislike to this lady, and when, 
some years later, she married Henry Seymour, a third 
descendant of Henry VII., James thought her so dan- 
gerous that he had her shut up in the Tower, where 
she died insane. Sir Walter Raleigh was also sent to 
the Tower, and lived there many years, writing books, 
some of which are famous. At last, in 1616, the king 
released him, that he might take command of an expe- 
dition to look for gold mines in South America. But 
James, with his usual deceitfulness, let the Spaniards, 
who had claimed the country where the mines were 
said to be, know just where Raleigh was going, so that 
the expedition was a failure. When Raleigh returned 
unsuccessful, he was first charged with misconduct in 
regard to the expedition, and then the old complaint 
was brought up against him that he had plotted against 
the king; and on this last charge he was beheaded at 
the Old Palace Yard in Westminster. The king's real 
object was to please the Spaniards, who found in 
Raleigh's enterprise a great danger to their colonies. 

The most famous of these plots is known in history 

as the "Gunpowder Plot." James's mother, it must 

be remembered, was a Roman Catholic ; and be- 

powder fore he became king of England he wrote to a 

(1605). prominent Englishman of that faith, the Earl of 



1 60s.] THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 1 47 

Northumberland, that when he came to the throne the 
Catholics should have freedom of worship. Perhaps 
he meant it sincerely, and for a time the Catholics 
were well treated. But the king soon found that 
there was in England a strong popular feeling against 
them, and that he himself was charged with being 
at heart of their faith. When he found out this fact, 
he began to deny that he had ever pledged himself 
that they should have freedom of worship, and he 
ordered his lawyers and judges to enforce the severe 
laws that existed against all who refused to attend the 
Protestant services. These persons were called under 
the law " Popish recusants," and they were subject to 
a fine of ^"50 — which would to-day be equivalent to 
$500 — for each month when they had failed to be 
present at the services of the Church of England. 
This severe persecution led to the formation of a 
plot, led by Robert Catesby, who belonged to one of 
the oldest families in England, to blow up the Parlia- 
ment House at a time when the king, lords, and com- 
mons should all be there together. " In that place," 
wrote Catesby, "they have done us all the mischief, 
and perhaps God hath designed that place for their 
punishment." Catesby had followers, of whom the 
best known is Guy, or Guido, Fawkes, and they placed 
six barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords 
without being detected. Then, while waiting for 
Parliament to assemble, they tried to hit upon a plan 
by which the Roman Catholic noblemen could be kept 
away from the House of Lords and their lives saved. 
But it was finally left to each person to caution those 
whom he thought fit ; and thus it happened that Lord 
Mounteagle, a brother-in-law of one of the conspira- 



I48 - JAMES I. [1605. 

tors, just as he was sitting down to supper one even- 
ing, received a note, written without punctuation or 
capitals, advising him to retire into the country for a 
time. " God and man hath concurred," this strange 
note said, "to punish the wickedness of this time;" 
and it added, " though there be no appearance of any 
stir, yet to-day they shall receive a terrible blow, 
this Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts 
them." Lord Mounteagle sent this letter to the Sec- 
retary of State, and the very night before Parliament 
was to assemble, a search was made, and the gunpow- 
der was found, with Guy Fawkes standing guard over 
it. Fawkes, on being seized, said to the man who 
arrested him that if he had only had the chance, he 
would have blown him up, his house, himself, and all. 
When taken before the king, he confessed the truth, 
saying that he meant to have blown up king, lords, 
bishops, and all the rest. He gave the names of the 
other conspirators, and they were all put to death. 
This made the greatest excitement, and led to still 
severer laws against the Catholics, most unwisely and 
unjustly, for it was the cruelty of the laws that first 
led to the plot; and although the conspirators were 
Catholics, Lord Mounteagle, who foiled them, was of 
the same religion. This happened Nov. 5, 1605; and 
to this day, in some parts of England, it is the custom 
to make bonfires on that anniversary, and to burn a 
stuffed image of Guy Fawkes, singing this rhyme : 

" Remember, remember the Fifth of November, 
Gunpowder Treason and plot ; 
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason 
Should ever be forgot." 

It shows how long traditions last, that within a few 



i6ii.] THE PURITANS. 149 

years, on the banks of the Merrimack River in 
Massachusetts, these bonfires have still been made. 

As the king was always in trouble with the Roman 
Catholics, so the same want of frankness kept him 
always in trouble with the Puritans. They The 
presented to the king a petition signed, as was Puritans - 
claimed, by a thousand persons, asking for changes in 
the Church usages. As James's early years had been 
passed in Presbyterian Scotland, they had reason to 
think that he, at least, would not be a very strict 
Episcopalian, and would treat them fairly. On receiv- 
ing this petition he called a conference between the 
petitioners and the High Churchmen, as those were 
called who opposed the request. The conference was 
held at Hampton Court, and the king himself presided. 
From the beginning he took sides entirely with the 
Episcopalians, and with the bishops who represented 
them, and he said fiercely of the Puritans, " I will make 
them conform, or I will harry them out of the land." 
But although the Puritans got no fair treatment from 
this conference, the assembly had one good result, — 
an English translation of the Bible, better than any 
that had yet appeared. Forty-seven clergymen, it is 
said, began working on it soon after the conference 
was closed, and they finished their work in 1611. 
This translation is still in general use among Protest- 
ants who speak English. It is known as King James's 
version, and was one of the few good results of his reign. 

James I. had three children. There was one daugh- 
ter, Elizabeth, who married a German, Prince Fred- 
erick, called the Elector Palatine. This marriage was 
very important, as will be seen by and by. Then there 
was a son Henry, who soon died, and a son Charles, 



i5o 



JAMES I. 




KING JAMES I.: FROM A PAINTING BY P. VAN SOMER, DATED l62I, 
IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, 



i6ii.] THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. 151 

for whom it was necessary, in time, to find a suitable 
wife. James set his heart upon having a Spanish prin- 
cess for a daughter-in-law. But the Spaniards thought 
he should show some favor to the English Catho- "The 
lies, which he could not well do. Prince Charles M a a r msi 
and a young companion, George Villiers, Duke nage " 
of Buckingham, actually went to Spain to see the 
princess. But the match fell through. This greatly 
pleased the English people, and for a time Buckingham 
was the most popular man in the kingdom. 

One of James's follies was a belief in what used to 
be called "The Divine Right of Kings." He had 
come to the throne in defiance of an Act of The 
Parliament, and merely because he was the RighTof 
nearest in blood to Queen Elizabeth. He did Km § s - 
not regard himself in any way responsible to the people 
of England, but thought himself an absolute monarch. 
He would have had no such thing as a Parliament if he 
could have helped it. Fortunately for England, there 
was no safe way for a king to get money except from 
Parliament, and he was obliged to call it together 
much oftener than he wished. Now, during the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth, Parliament had been quite submis- 
sive on the whole, though once in a while some bold 
member would openly say what he thought. There 
was a feeling of loyalty towards Elizabeth, which was 
not the case with regard to James. Then, too, she was 
thoroughly a queen in her bearing, while in mind and 
body James was very far from being the Englishman's 
ideal of a king. So members of Parliament neither 
respected nor feared him. And they soon showed their 
independence by impeaching the Lord Chancellor, the 
highest judge in England. This was Francis Bacon, 
Lord Verulam, one of the most eminent men in the 



152 JAMES I. [1621. 

nation, and one of the few really great men whom 
James had about him. He was charged with taking 
bribes, and confessed to having received presents from 
im each those whose cases were being tried before him. 
mentof He was declared guilty by the House of 

Bacon. & J J 

Lords, and sentenced to fine and imprison- 
ment, from both of which he was almost entirely 
excused by the king; but he spent the rest of his 
life in retirement. It must be remembered in his 
behalf that the practice of taking bribes was then 
almost universal; and he was perhaps right when he 
claimed to have been the most honest lord chancellor 
for many years. 

The House of Commons also turned its attention to 
foreign affairs, and informed the king that it was not 

safe for the nation to have a Catholic queen, 
Great as might be the case if his son should marry a 
tion Catholic princess. James became very angry, 

and called it an assembly of five hundred kings. 
He bade the Commons not to meddle with the "mys- 
teries of state," and threatened even to imprison some 
of them in the Tower of London. The commoners 
had often listened to this sort of language from Queen 
Elizabeth. But they now drew up the " Great Pro- 
testation," claiming that the king's view of his own 
powers was quite wrong. They declared "their liber- 
ties and privileges to be the undoubted birthright of 
the subjects of England." They asserted also that 
they had a clear right to inquire into anything that 
concerned the public good. This enraged the king so 
much that he dissolved Parliament, and sending for 
their records, tore out this " Protestation " with his 
own hands. A few years later he died. 



[625.] THE FRENCH MARRIAGE. 1 53 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CHARLES I. 

1 62 5- 1 649. 

A S soon as matters could be properly arranged, the 
-£jl new king married the Princess Henrietta Maria 
of France. She was a sister of the French king, and 
daughter of that Henry IV. portrayed by Macaulay in 
the ballad of the " Battle of Ivry." But Henry The 
IV. had turned Catholic in order to become mS- Ch 
king, and Henrietta Maria had grown up to be ria s e > ^ 

& ' . war Wlt h 

a very strict Catholic. She was accompanied France, 
to England by several priests, who often advised her 
very ill. One day she went with them to Tyburn 
Hill, and prayed to some of the Roman Catholics who 
had formerly been put to death there, as if they were 
saints and martyrs. This Charles considered an in- 
sult to him and to his whole nation. Again, she re- 
fused, under the advice of her priests, to be crowned 
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the king had 
been. This enraged Charles above all, and he ordered 
Buckingham to send every one of the French priests 
out of the kingdom. He said, " If you can, by fair 
means; but stick not long in disputing. Otherwise 
force them away, driving them like so many wild 
beasts." This sending away the priests was against 
the marriage agreement, and so the French king made 
war against England. 



154 CHARLES I. [1628. 

It seemed to Charles and his favorite, Buckingham, 
that the best way to carry on the war was to help the 
Attempt French Protestants, or Huguenots, against their 
lYrJT 6 kin S- The stron g nold of tne Huguenots was at 
cheiie. L a Rochelle, a fortified city on the sea-coast; 
and the Duke of Buckingham led a great expedition 
to the relief of that place when it was besieged by 
Cardinal Richelieu. 

This enterprise was at first popular; and though it 
cost a great deal of money, this would have been joyfully 

given, had the English people felt confidence in 
of Right Buckingham. For want of this confidence, the 

House of Commons refused to provide the neces- 
sary funds unless he was dismissed. Charles was angry, 
dissolved Parliament, tried in vain to raise money on his 
own responsibility, and then called Parliament together 
once more in March, 1628. But the House of Com- 
mons, instead of voting money, drew up a paper called 
the "Petition of Right." This paper, which received 
the consent of the Peers, asserted the following prin- 
ciples : First, that no English subject could be com- 
pelled to pay any tax whatever without the consent of 
Parliament ; secondly, that no one could be imprisoned 
without cause shown; thirdly, that no one could be 
compelled to receive soldiers^ or sailors into his house; 
and fourthly, that no one could be tried by martial law 
in time of peace. All these things had been done by 
the king; and for him to surrender the right to do 
them was to give up a great deal of what he and his 
father before him had regarded as kingly power. But 
his need of money was desperate, and the House of 
Commons held the purse; so at last, most unwillingly, 
he consented to the petition. Even then he tried to 



i628.] 



PETITION OF RIGHT. 



15 



soften the fall by giving his consent in an unusual 
way. But the Commons were not to be put off in this 
manner, and at once set about adding an additional 
document, called a Remonstrance, or Statement, of 




KING CHARLES I. : FROM A PAINTING BY VAN DYCK. 



Grievances. Then the king sent them a message in- 
forming them that it was their business to vote money, 
and not to draw up remonstrances. Then followed 
some bold debates, in which Sir John Eliot was begin- 
ning to say something against the Duke of Bucking- 



156 CHARLES I. [1629. 

ham, when the Speaker interrupted him, and said, 
" There is a command laid upon me to interrupt any 
that should go about to lay an aspersion on the minis- 
ters of state." Presently the Speaker asked permis- 
sion to leave the House ; and when he was gone, the 
members found their tongues. Sir Edward Coke stood 
up, and named the Duke of Buckingham as the source 
of all the people's troubles. Then the Speaker re- 
turned, and adjourned the House till next day. But 
the words that had been spoken, and the spirit shown, 
had such an influence on the Peers that they sent a 
deputation, with Buckingham at its head, to beg the 
king to give a prompt and clear answer to the Peti- 
tion of Right. That very afternoon he answered by 
coming to the House of Peers, and giving his approval 
in the customary form to the petition. The clerk said 
in old Norman-French, which is even now used in 
many official proceedings in England, " Soit droit fait 
comme est desire" (Let it be enacted as prayed for); 
and henceforth the Petition of Right became the law 
of the land. It was so great a step in the direction of 
popular government that it has been called " the second 
Magna Charta. " After all, when the House had voted 
the money desired, it went on with the " Remon- 
strance; " but the House had now lost its hold on the 
king, as he had all he wanted, and so he dissolved it. 

Another expedition for the relief of Rochelle was 
now fitted out with all speed, and the Duke of Buck- 
ingham went down to Portsmouth to take command. 
But he was there murdered by an officer in the army 
who felt himself ill-treated by Buckingham. 

Parliament came together again in 1629, amid dis- 
aster abroad and discontent at home. The House of 



1629.] SIR JOHN ELIOT'S RESOLUTIONS. 1 57 

Commons, instead of voting money, began by adopting 
a complaint against Laud and two other clergymen 
who favored more elaborate religious cere- sir John 
monies in the Church of England. Then ^*J„. 
came up anew the question of the Petition of tions - 
Right, which had been disregarded. The Speaker 
tried to prevent action by the House, even breaking 
up the sitting by leaving his chair. A few days 
later, after having twice adjourned the House in this 
same way, he again refused to keep his place. This 
could be endured no longer; and two members, Denzil 
Holies and Benjamin Valentine, seized him, and held 
him in his place by main force, Holies saying, "You 
shall sit until we please to rise." Then Sir John 
Eliot made a bold speech, defending the House against 
any charge of disrespect to the king, and presenting a 
series of resolutions, on which he demanded a vote. 
Several members rose to leave the House ; but a mem- 
ber locked the door, and put the key in his pocket. 
Then Eliot again called upon the Speaker to do his 
duty, and put the resolutions to vote, reminding him 
that every one who had thus far defied Parliament had 
been broken down by it. The Speaker said he dared 
not do it. At last Denzil Holies, standing by the 
Speaker's chair, and while the royal messengers were 
pounding on the door, read the resolutions himself, put 
them to vote, and saw them passed by an overwhelming 
majority. They asserted that every one who tried to 
introduce new ceremonies into the Church, or who ad- 
vised the levy of taxes without the express grant from 
Parliament, or who paid taxes so levied, was a betrayer 
of the liberties of England, and an enemy to the king- 
dom. The door was then flung open, and the members 



r58 CHARLES I. [1635. 

went out, meeting the soldiers whom the king had sent 
to force their way in. The work of this Parliament 
was done. It was now the king's turn, and for eleven 
long years no House of Commons was called together 
in England. Sir John Eliot was placed in confine- 
ment, and refusing to make his submission to the 
king, died there a martyr to the cause of English 
liberty. Among the members who spoke for the first 
time in this Parliament was Oliver Cromwell. 

Charles was now resolved to govern without parlia- 
ments, if it were possible. The money question was 
, the only difficult one. But he had a treas- 

Personal J 

govern- urer named Weston, who had great skill and 
of the ingenuity in getting money out of the people of 
km§ " England without driving them into rebellion. 
To begin with, Weston and his friends looked up and 
enforced certain old laws which people had long since 
forgotten. For instance, there was an old law which 
required that when a new king was crowned, all men 
who owned land to a certain amount must be raised to 
the rank of knighthood, whether they desired it or 
not. Now, as years went by, and the value of money 
decreased, it became impossible for such landowners 
to support the dignity of knighthood. They had not 
asked to be knighted, and the existence of the law 
itself had been wellnigh forgotten. Weston now com- 
pelled all who had broken this law to pay large fines. 
Another way he had of raising money was by the sale 
of monopolies, or the exclusive right to sell or make 
a certain article. There was now no Parliament to 
object to the creation of monopolies, so Weston sold 
the right to make and sell innumerable things, even 
soap, to those who would pay a large sum to the king, 



I635-] ARCHBISHOP LAUD AND THE PURITANS. 1 59 

and a smaller sum to himself. In these and other 
ways Weston kept the king supplied with money for 
several years. 

The king had another and worse adviser in William 
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. After Weston's 
death, he became the real head of the treasury, 
and the most powerful subject in England. He bishop 
was honest and sincere, but narrow, harsh, and and the 
arrogant. To him "Church and King" were Puritans 
everything, while the people seemed a body to be 
trained, amused, and kept down. He especially wished 
to restore the Church and clergy to the high power in 
the state they had once held, and to bring back many 
of the ceremonies that had been given up since the 
Reformation. He wished to replace in the churches 
the stained glass windows that had been destroyed 
or removed. He wished also to encourage dancing, 
the theatre, and Sunday afternoon sports. He even 
persuaded Charles to reissue a certain " Declaration of 
Sports," which King James had withdrawn, for fear 
of offending the Puritans and their friends. The 
clergy were now ordered to read this declaration 
from their pulpits. Some refused, and were pun- 
ished. One man read the offensive document and 
the Ten Commandments in succession, and then said 
to his congregation: "Ye have heard the command- 
ments of God and man; obey which ye please." 
When it came to play-acting, there was more to be 
said for the Puritan view. The stage was degraded, 
and reflected the moral tone of the people, which was 
low. All this displeased the Puritans, whose moral 
tone was good, though their views might sometimes be 
narrow. One of them, William Prynne, wrote a book 



l6o CHARLES I. [1635. 

against stage-plays. Laud declared this an insult to 
the queen, who sometimes had taken part in private 
theatricals. So the Star Chamber sentenced Prynne 
to be placed in the pillory, where everybody might 
insult him, to lose his ears, to pay a fine, and to be 
imprisoned during the king's pleasure. And this 
sentence was executed without arousing much remark. 
During all this time the need of money became more 
and more pressing. All the extreme measures resorted 
Shi to by Weston and his successors were not 
money, enough ; so a new device was invented. This 
was called ship-money. The English navy had become 
very much reduced, and it was decided to revive it. 
In Queen Elizabeth's day she used to call upon the 
seaport towns or counties to furnish ships for the 
navy, as they were needed. This was now done; but 
the ships demanded were so large that only London 
could furnish them, the other seaport places being let 
off with paying a sum of money instead, to be collected 
from the individual taxpayers. A large sum was thus 
raised without much opposition, and there is no rea- 
son to doubt that it was honestly spent on the navy. 
The trouble was that it created a very strong tempta- 
tion to go a little farther, and raise money in this way 
for all the expenses of the court. 

Accordingly, during the next year (1635) there 
came another call for ship-money. This time it was 

ingeniously argued that the inland counties 
den's were as much interested in the defence of the 

kingdom as the rest, and why should they not 
pay their share? This they did, with some farther 
grumbling. But when there came, in the next year, 
a third call for ship-money, addressed to all the coun- 




i;:.v' : :y .■':'i : ..,:': :" ■ &^W^i^^ ■-d 



162 CHARLES I. [1637. 

ties, and payable by individual taxpayers, the people 
began to open their eyes. It became plain that the 
king had hit upon a method for raising just what 
money he pleased, even while refusing to call together 
a Parliament. The excitement spread fast, and many 
prominent men refused to pay their share of the ship- 
money, believing that the Parliament alone had the 
right to tax them. Among them were Lord Say and 
Sele, Lord Brook (for whom Saybrook in Connecticut 
is named), and John Hampden, one of England's 
greatest men. Hampden's case was brought to trial. 
Seven of the "twelve judges" decided against him, 
giving their opinions in favor of the king. We 
shall see what became of the " ship-money judges," 
and their decision in Hampden's case, when the Long 
Parliament met. For the present the ship-money was 
collected. 

The king's triumph seemed complete; but his best 
advisers cautioned him that the popular feeling was 
Public with Hampden, and that he would do well to 
aSst ca ^ a Parliament. Soon Prynne was again 
the king, brought before the Star Chamber, this time 
for speaking his mind very freely about Laud and his 
bishops. Others were brought up at the same time, 
— Burton, a clergyman, and also a physician named 
Bastwick. This last man had gone even farther than 
Prynne, and had prayed : " From plague, pestilence, 
and famine, from bishops, priests, and deacons, good 
Lord deliver us." All three were condemned to stand 
in the pillory, Burton and Bastwick to lose their ears, 
and Prynne what was left of his; and the last-named 
to be branded on each cheek "S. S.," for Sower of 
Sedition. When the prisoners went through the . 



1637] THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 163 

streets to meet their punishment, they found the 
pavements strewn with flowers and green wreaths in 
their honor. A groan went up from the whole 
assembly when the cruel punishment was inflicted; 
and when the prisoners were afterwards carried to 
distant parts of England, the same deep sympathy 
met them everywhere. 

Between Prynne's two punishments a great change 
had taken place in public opinion. The great middle 
class now stood behind Hampden and Prynne, 
though Charles and his favorite archbishop had Scottish 

, . t • -T-i -r. • • Church. 

not discovered it. JLne great Puritan emigration 
to America was going on all this time (1630-1640) ; and 
we cannot understand the bitter feeling that the emi- 
grants carried with them, not merely against bishops, 
but against kings, without remembering how Laud and 
Charles were associated in their minds. Before long 
these two men took a new step in what the people called 
tyranny. They resolved to strengthen the Episcopal 
Church in Scotland. They found the Scots less loyal 
and patient than the English. In Scotland, at the 
Reformation, the bishops had generally left their 
flocks, and, under the lead of John Knox, the Church 
of Scotland, or Kirk, as it was called, had come to be 
governed, according to the methods of Calvin, by rep- 
resentative assemblies, "presbyteries," and the like. 
King James had established bishops in Scotland, but 
they had obtained little influence. The king and Laud 
now resolved to make the Scottish Kirk uniform with 
the Church in England. So the Scottish clergy were 
ordered to wear surplices, which they hated, and a new 
prayer-book was sent to them from England, with 
orders for every minister to buy two copies, and use 



164 CHARLES I. [1639. 

the book every Sunday. On July 23, 1637, the Dean 
of St. Giles's Church in Edinburgh began to read from 
the new prayer-book. A riot followed, and it did not 
take long to put all Scotland in open rebellion. An 
old agreement, called "The National Covenant," was 
revived. It was signed by all the leading men except 
a few royalists in the North. Its signers agreed to 
stand by their own religious faith and forms. The 
Covenanters soon raised an army, seized Edinburgh 
Castle, and went to war with the king. 

The war, however, did not last long. Neither party 
really wished to fight, and a treaty was made at Ber- 
Th wick. Unfortunately the Scots had no con- 
first fidence in Charles. They kept their army 

Bishops' 1 T-T , 1 • r 

war together, and applied to the French king for 
aid. Charles wished to renew the war, but 
he had no money; and at last, after eleven years of 
refusal, he made up his mind to call Parliament to- 
gether once more. In doing this he acted under the 
straf- advice of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. 
ford. Men called this statesman "the apostate," be- 
cause at one time he had seemed to be on the people's 
side. But his opposition to the court at the time of the 
Petition of Right had been merely because of his dis- 
like to Buckingham, after whose death he fell into his 
natural place as the chief defender of royalty against 
the rising spirit of liberty. He wished to preserve 
the king's power as it had existed under the later 
Tudors. While Weston and Laud had been at work 
for the king in England, Strafford had been doing the 
same in Ireland, where, under his favorite watchword, 
"Thorough," he had oppressed the Irish most cruelly. 
He had advised the king against the treaty of Berwick, 



1640.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 1 65 

and he now urged him to call a Parliament. That 
body met in April, 1640. It utterly refused to vote 
money until the popular grievances were re- 
dressed. But the king refused thus to give up Short 
all the principles at stake ; and after a twenty- ment 
three days' session Parliament was dissolved. ( l64 °)- 
It is hence known as the Short Parliament. 

In one way or another Charles and Strafford got 
together some soldiers and armed them. At their 
head Strafford set out to meet the Scots. But „,, 

The 

the English soldiers hated Laud more than they second 

b . J Bishops' 

did those against whom they were marching. War 
They called the war " The Bishops' War. " They * 
tore down the altar railings which Laud had caused to 
be erected in the parish churches. They deserted by 
hundreds, and sometimes killed their own officers. The 
Scots poured over the border, took possession of the 
coal-mines of the North of England, and were only pre- 
vented from coming farther southward by the king's 
promising to pay them ^25,000 per month until peace 
should be made. The king could not possibly pay 
such a large sum, and he was compelled to call a Par- 
liament. It met at Westminster Nov. 3, 1640, and 
sat, with intermissions, for nearly twenty years, until 
March 16, 1660. It is for this reason known in history 
as the Long Parliament. 

The new Parliament was differently situated from 
any other that had ever come together. In the first 
place, the great mass of the English people was The 
behind it, for men were weary of paying taxes PaSfa- 
to which their consent had not been given, ™^*_ 
while many were tired of Laud and his innova- l66o >- 
tions. Then again, and what was most important, 



1 66 CHARLES I. [1641. 

Parliament had^ an armed force behind it, — not the 
English army, to be sure, but the Scottish army. The 
king could not pay the Scots; and as long as Parlia- 
ment paid them only enough to secure their staying in 
the North of England, and not enough to induce them 
to return to Scotland, so long Parliament held a sword 
hanging over the king's head. If Parliament were 
dissolved, and the Scots came south, no one could tell 
what might happen. Or again, if Parliament refused 
to pay any money, and they came south, it was un- 
certain how many Puritans would join them; so the 
king was obliged to do and hear many things he did 
not like. 

Recognizing in Strafford the one man capable of 
opposing them, the patriot leaders determined to over- 
Execu- tnrow n i m - O n November 11, therefore, John 
tion of Py m — " King Pym " his enemies called him — 
ford appeared before the House of Peers, and in the 
1 4I ' name of the Commons accused Strafford of high 
treason. Even while Pym was speaking, Strafford 
entered the House, intending to bring the same charge 
against Pym on account of certain dealings with the 
Scots. He was forbidden to speak, and was sent to the 
Tower to await trial. Laud, too, was arrested, though 
his trial was long delayed. When Strafford's trial 
began, it soon became evident that it would be hard 
to convict him on the charge of treason. So the trial 
before the Peers was abandoned. A bill declaring 
Strafford a public enemy, and providing for his execu- 
tion, was brought into the Commons and passed. This 
was called a Bill of Attainder, and, like any other bill, 
required the consent of the Commons, Peers, and king, 
to become a law. The excitement during its passage 



1641.] CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS. l6j 

was intense, and once when a board in the floor of 
Parliament creaked under the weight of a very heavy 
member, the other members drew their swords, as if 
the Gunpowder Plot were begun again. Charles was 
very slow to give his consent to the Bill of Attainder, 
and when he did so, he tried to put off the execution. 
As soon, however, as it became known that Strafford 
had tried to bribe his jailer with .£20,000, — a sum 
that would be worth, in these times, several hundred 
thousand dollars, — the House of Commons demanded 
that his execution should be hurried, and refused 
to wait. So on May 12, 1641, the great earl was 
beheaded. 

During the year 1641 Parliament made many other 
changes, aiming to overthrow the whole system of 
arbitrary government built up by Strafford and 
Laud. The courts which had been misused tionai 
were abolished, — the Star Chamber, the High 
Commission, and the Council of the North. Prynne 
and his fellow-sufferers were released from prison. 
Ship-money was declared illegal, the judgment in 
Hampden's case was annulled, and the ship-money 
judges who did not get away were impeached. Then 
a law was passed arranging for more frequent parlia- 
ments in the future, even if the king did not summon 
them. When the king's consent was obtained to a bill 
providing that the present Parliament should not be 
dissolved except by its own consent, the two Houses 
went to work to pay off both armies and to disband 
them. 

Charles now went to Scotland, found he had very 
little authority there, and then came back to Eng- 
land, where he was better received than before. This 



1 68 CHARLES I. [1642. 

was due partly to the concessions he had made, but 
still more to the fact that the reformers themselves 
The had now begun to disagree as to what to do with 
patriots the Church of England. Some of them, like 

disagree ° 

about Falkland and Hyde (afterwards Earl of Claren- 
don), wished simply to have the Church service 
as it was before Laud had meddled with it. Others, 
like Pym, Hampden, and Cromwell, desired that it 
should be completely reformed; a few, like Lord 
The Brook, stood for a middle course. Moreover, 
ifish a fierce rebellion had broken out in Ireland. 

Rebel- 
lion After Strafford's iron rule had been removed, 

the Irish peasants, who had been driven from 
their homes by the English, drove out the English in 
return; and these last were either killed or made their 
way to Dublin half-starved and naked. It was plain it 
would never do to give Charles an army to put down 
this rebellion, for he would surely use it against the 
patriots in England, who were now having a hard time 
to maintain themselves. To revive the resentment of 
The the people against the king, the reformers car- 
Remon- rie d through the Commons the " Grand Remon- 
strance. s trance," reciting all Charles's illegal acts since 
the beginning of his reign. Their majority in the 
Commons, where at first they had met with almost no 
opposition, was now only eleven, and they came near 
drawing swords among themselves. Two days later 
the king returned from Scotland, and found himself 
so well received that he believed his power to have 
revived, and refused to make any concessions whatever. 
On Jan. 3, 1642, the king's attorney-general came 
into the House of Peers and impeached of high trea- 
son one peer, Lord Kimbolton, and five commoners, — 



[642.] ATTEMPT TO ARREST THE FIVE MEMBERS. 1 69 



Pym, Hampden, Haselrig, Holies, and Strode, — the 
complaint being that they had intrigued with the Scots 
during the late troubles. When the king de- 
manded the persons of the five accused com- attempt 
moners, the House of Commons voted to take ^^f 
the matter into consideration. Not satisfied * nem - 

bers. 

with this, Charles decided to go the next day to 

the House and seize the five members. When the 

moment came, his heart failed him, and had not the 




A COACH OF THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY; 
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY JOHN DUNSTALL. 



queen called him a coward, he might not have gone. 
At last, however, he entered the House, and stand- 
ing before the Speaker's chair, told the members 
that he had come to take the traitors. Not seeing 
them, he asked the Speaker if they were there. Wil- 
liam Lenthall, the Speaker, kneeling before the king, 
answered bravely, " May it please your Majesty, I have 



I JO CHARLES I. [1642. 

neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place, 
but as the House is pleased to direct me." "Well, 
well," said Charles, " 't is no matter. I think my eyes 
are as good as another's." Then, finding, as he ex- 
pressed it, that the birds were flown, he departed amid 
cries of "Privilege! privilege!" This was to remind 
him that it was the legal privilege of members not 
to be arrested for what they said in Parliament. He 
soon found that the five members had taken refuge 
in the City of London, by order of the House, and 
he accordingly went and demanded them of the Com- 
mon Council. The same cry of " Privileges of Parlia- 
ment " met his ear, and this was all he could get from 
the City, which had lately received him so cordially. 
These attempts, too, made all the reforming party in 
Parliament feel that their own freedom was in danger; 
so that the peers, the city merchants, and the moder- 
ates, like Falkland, were once more united with the 
Puritans. The Commons left Westminster, and sat as 
a committee in the Guildhall of the City of London. 
They appointed a general to command the London 
train-bands, or militia, who were loyal to the people's 
cause ; and even the Thames watermen pledged them- 
selves to protect the Commons. After this they 
thought they could safely return to Westminster, and 
did so, Jan. 1 1, 1642. 

Charles I. had not waited to see the triumph of 
" King Pym " and the Puritans, but had fled with the 

queen and their children; and when next he 
War entered his palace of Whitehall, it was as a 

prisoner. Meanwhile, the Parliament made 
one more demand upon him, — to place the control of 
all the militia in the hands of officers chosen by 



1642.] 



CIVIL WAR BEGINS. 



171 



Parliament. Refusing this, Charles raised his royal 
standard at Nottingham, and called on all loyal sub- 
jects to aid him against his rebellious Parliament. 
It was thought a bad omen for his success when the 
great flag, blown by the furious wind, fell to the 
earth. But it was again set up, and the great Civil 
War began. 




TENTS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES [. 



1^2 THE CIVIL WARS. [1642. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE CIVIL WARS. 
1 642-1 649. 

PARLIAMENT found no sort of difficulty in rais- 
ing an army. The City of London held to the 
Parliament's side, and so did the people of the South- 
ern and Eastern counties, then the richest and most 
The thickly settled parts of the kingdom. As for 
c| vil arms and ammunition, the Parliamentary party 
begins had seized whatever the king had collected. 
Yet their soldiers were inexperienced, and the 
king was therefore generally successful at first. The 
first battle at Edgehill was indecisive, and the royal 
army advanced as far as Brentford, a few miles from 
London; but there the city train-bands stopped him, 
and he turned back to Oxford, where he spent the 
winter, and where, indeed, he had his headquarters 
during most of the war. 

The next year neither side gained much. The 
greatest loss to the Parliament was in the death of 
Death of J° nn Hampden, who was killed in a skirmish at 
John Chalgrove Field, near Oxford. Not very much 
den is known of Hampden's private history; but the 
1 43 ' respect he won both from friend and foe shows 
his character to have been high. At last the aid of 
the Scots was secured by the Parliamentary leaders. 
This was the last achievement of "King Pym," and he 



i643-] OLIVER CROMWELL. 173 

also died at the end of 1643. A year or two later came 
the execution on the scaffold of Archbishop Laud, who 
had done more than any one, except, perhaps, Death of 
Charles himself, to bring civil war upon the Pym> 
country. Hampden and Pym upon the one side, and 
Strafford and Laud upon the other were thus re- 
moved. But a new personage, more powerful in his 
way than either of them, had meantime appeared upon 
the scene. 

Years after, it was related that when the members 
were leaving the House of Commons after the passage 
of the "Grand Remonstrance," a man of good _. 

Oliver 

stature, very plainly dressed, with a sharp, un- Crom- 
tunable voice, and a red and swollen face, was 
heard to declare that had the Remonstrance been 
rejected, he, for one, would have sold his all the next 
morming, and never have seen England more. He 
added : " I know there are many other honest men of 
the same resolution." That was Oliver Cromwell, 
known to his neighbors as " The Lord of the Fens," 
for the manful way in which he had asserted the rights 
of his friends against both king and noble. Cromwell 
was not a great Parliamentary leader, like Eliot or Pym, 
but he had a wonderful way of seeing the needs of the 
moment, and of seeking a remedy with immense energy 
and strength. 

He saw that the Parliament's troops, who were, 
as he said, mostly "old, decayed serving-men and 
tapsters, and such kind of fellows," were no Crom- 
match for the adherents of the king. "You rron- S 
must get," he said to Hampden, "men of a s,des * 
spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentlemen will 
go, or else you will be beaten still." Soon after 



174 



THE CIVIL WARS. 



[1643. 



this, Cromwell was made a colonel of cavalry, and 
he took good care that none but "godly men," by 
which he meant honest, well-behaved men, should 

He never asked them what 



enlist in his regiment. 




OLIVER CROMWELL : FROM A PAINTING BY STR PETER LELY, 



Church they preferred, but only made sure that they 
were honest, sober Christians, who had an interest in 
the welfare of the country. These men he drilled 
until they obeyed orders as men have seldom obeyed 
before or since. "Truly they were never beaten at 



i644-] MARSTON MOOR. 175 

all," he said at a later day. They went into battle 
singing psalms, and were known as the "Ironsides." 

At the head of these men he helped the Earl of 
Manchester to drive the king's forces from the eastern 
counties. He then marched into Lincolnshire, 
and beat the Royalists at Winceby Fight. Soon Moor 
after, he joined Fairfax and the Scots, and the 
united armies laid siege to the city of York, whither 
the Marquis of Newcastle, the king's commander in 
the North, had retreated. Before long, Prince Rupert 
came to the marquis's aid. The two armies met on 
Marston Moor. Cromwell, with his Ironsides, dashed 
through Rupert's hitherto un conquered troopers as 
through a field of growing corn. "God made them 
as stubble to our swords," he wrote to the Speaker of 
the Commons. Recalling his men from the pursuit, he 
rode to the aid of the Scots, who were hard pressed on 
the other flank. In a few moments the day was won. 
Soon after, York surrendered, and Cromwell was a 
power in the land. 

Meantime, in the south of England, the king had 
been very successful, and had captured the greater 
part of the main army commanded by the Earl of 
Essex. And even Cromwell was not always so fortu- 
nate as at Marston Moor. At Newbury, when he and 
Manchester had driven the king off the field, Cromwell 
had begged to be allowed to make one charge with his 
Ironsides on the retreating army. "No," said Man- 
chester, " if we should beat the king ninety-nine times, 
he would still be king, and his posterity after him, 
and we should be subjects still; but if he should beat 
us only once, we should be hanged, and our posterity 
undone." To Cromwell this lukewarmness seemed 



176 THE CIVIL WARS. [1645. 

little better than treason to the cause of freedom. 
What though he should be hanged, if the cause was 
gained? As for the king, Cromwell declared that if 
he met him in battle, "he would fire his pistol at the 
king, as at another." He rose in his place in the 
House of Commons and declared: "It is now a time 
to speak, or forever hold the tongue ; " adding, " I do 
conceive if the army be not put into another method, 
and the war more vigorously prosecuted, the people 
can bear the war no longer, and will enforce you to a 
dishonorable peace." It was determined to put the 
army into a new method, and to get rid of Manchester, 
Essex, and others who were afraid to beat the king too 

thoroughly. This was done by the passage of 
denying the "Self-denying Ordinance," depriving all 
ance members of Parliament of their military com- 
(I 45 mands. The army was also reorganized, or 
"new modelled," as the phrase was, on the plan of 
the Ironsides. Fairfax was placed at its head. He 

soon enlisted twenty thousand "godly, honest 
NeAv men," never asking what were their religious 

preferences. Cromwell's presence was felt to 
be so necessary that the officers petitioned Parliament 
to relax the " Self-denying Ordinance " in his favor. 
The request was granted, and on June 13 he rejoined 
his Ironsides, who gave "a great shout for joy of his 
coming to them." In truth, he came in good time, for 
the very next day the " New Model " army met the king 
Naseby at Naseby. As at Marston Moor, so at Naseby, 
(1645). Cromwell's Ironsides won the day. The king's 
cause was utterly ruined ; he never found himself at the 
head of an armed force again. But more fatal to him 
than the loss of his army was that of his writing-desk, 



1646.] CHARLES FLEES TO THE SCOTS. 1 77 

which proved to be filled with papers showing his 
terrible faithlessness to his promises and his people. 
The war was virtually ended at Naseby; but it was 
not until two years had passed away that Harlech Cas- 
tle, the last royalist stronghold, surrendered. Then, 
at length, in the words of one of Charles's faithful fol- 
lowers, "the conquerors might go to play, unless they 
fell out among themselves." Unfortunately, this last 
was just what they did. 

The Puritan leaders may have expected that the 
king, after so many defeats, would yield to their de- 
mands. But no such idea seems to have crossed 

Charles 

the mind of Charles. On the contrary, seeking flees to 
refuge with the Scottish soldiers, he tried by 
promises to induce them to take his side, and to make 
war on their English allies. If Charles had not de- 
ceived them already so many times, they might have 
done as he wished; for they were discontented at the 
growing strength of Cromwell and his Ironsides, who 
were no Presbyterians. As it was, however, they put 
no faith in the word of a king, and, on condition that 
their expenses should be paid, handed him over to the 
commissioners of Parliament. The king now saw that 
his best course was to come to terms with the Pres- 
byterian leaders in Parliament; so he agreed to do what 
they wished with regard to religion. But this did not 
at all suit the army. 

It will be remembered that Fairfax and Cromwell, 
when they enlisted the soldiers of the "New m 

... The 

Model," asked no man what his religion was. indepen- 
It turned out, however, that a majority of the 
soldiers were, like their great leader, Independents. 
That is, they thought that every Christian had a 

12 



178 THE CIVIL WARS. [1647. 

right to worship as he saw fit, always excepting the 
Roman Catholics. They had no wish to have a Pres- 
byterian Church thrust upon the nation. So one 
evening, before any treaty between the king and the 
The Parliament was concluded, an army officer ap- 
seizes the P eare d at Holmby House, where the king was 
kin §- imprisoned by Parliament. He called upon 
the king to accompany him. The next morning this 
demand was repeated, as the king had at first refused 
to comply. " Where is your commission? " asked the 
king. "There, behind me," answered Joyce (for that 
was the officer's name), pointing to his soldiers. " Your 
instructions are written in a very legible character," 
said the king, and he went with the officer. 

The army next turned the Presbyterian leaders out 
of Parliament; and when the London mob interposed 
in their favor, the army marched through the City, and 
put an end to all opposition. Meantime Cromwell and 
the other officers had been trying to get Charles to con- 
sent to certain propositions, securing to all English- 
men, except the Roman Catholics, freedom of worship 
and a more equal representation in Parliament and on 
the juries. But Charles, believing that London would 
prove too strong for the army, refused his consent. 
When he saw his hopes dashed to the ground, he 
escaped from his jailers, and rode rapidly to the south of 
England, where he was arrested by Colonel Hammond, 
and locked up in Carisbrooke Castle, on the Isle of 
Wight. 

There now came another attempt to induce the king 
to agree to a treaty; but before anything was concluded 
it became known that Charles was negotiating with 
the Scots. Indeed, he had promised that if they 



1648.J BATTLE OF PRESTON. 1 79 

would set him on his throne again, he would establish 
Presbyterianism for three years as the state church. 
This was perhaps the worst thing that he could have 
done; for however much they differed among them- 
selves on religious affairs, the great body of the patriots 
was united against having these questions decided for 
them by the Scots. They forgot their differences, Th 
and bent all their energies against the Scots Scots 
and the Royalists. But first the soldiers held England 
a prayer-meeting, and resolved that if they were ^ 4 )# 
victorious, they would bring " Charles Stuart, that man 
of blood, to account for that blood he had shed, and 
mischief he had done to his utmost against the Lord's 
cause, and people of these poor nations." 

While Fairfax was beating the Royalists in the 
eastern and southern counties, Cromwell captured Pem- 
broke, and then went in search of the Scots. He 

_ . _ . . Battle of 

came upon them near Preston, in Lancashire, as Preston 
they were marching southward, unsuspicious of 4 
danger. They were scattered along many miles of 
road, and the Ironsides dashed down first on one body, 
and then on another, until, after three days of hard 
fighting, the Scottish army was no more. 

Now, while the army was thus employed, Parliament 
had been negotiating with the king. But he, hoping 
even to the last, had delayed too long before yielding. 
The army returned to London, and told Parliament 
to stop their negotiations, and to bring the king to 
justice. Parliament refused. Then one morn- 

J " Pride's 

ing the members found Colonel Pride's regiment Purge" 
surrounding the Parliament House. Colonel I 4 
Pride himself was at the door, and as fast as the 
Presbyterian members appeared, they were arrested 



ISO THE CIVIL WARS. [1649. 

and taken to a neighboring tavern. This was repeated 
the next day, until at length the House of Commons 
was "purged," as they called it, of all members op- 
posed to the army. The Commons then voted that 
there should be no more debate with the king, but that 
he should be brought to London and tried for his life 
before a court established for that purpose. The 
Lords — for there were twelve peers who still sat in 
the upper house — refused their consent. The Com- 
mons then voted that the consent of neither king nor 
Lords was essential to legislation. The army, to 
make sure of its control, had again taken possession 
of the king. He was brought to London. He refused 

to recognize the authority of the court, and, 
king ex- being found guilty of treason, was beheaded 

before his palace of Whitehall on the 30th of 
January, 1649. Whatever may be thought of the pre- 
vious faults of Charles I., he met his death like a king. 
In the words of the poet, Andrew Marvell, — 

" He nothing common did or mean 
Upon that memorable scene, 

But with his keener eye 

The axe's edge did try ; 
Nor called the gods, with vulgar spite, 
To vindicate his helpless right ; 

But bowed his comely head 

Down, as upon a bed." 

The army was now supreme in England and Scot- 
land, so that Cromwell was at liberty to turn his atten- 
tion to Ireland. The Puritans had never forgotten the 
massacres of 1641 ; and the Irish had added to the 
hatred with which they were regarded, by entering 
into an engagement to fight in the king's army. They 



1649] MASSACRE OF DROGHEDA. l8l 

plainly could expect no mercy from the Ironsides, and 
they got none. 

Cromwell landed at Dublin in August, 1649. A 
month later he took Drogheda by storm. In the 
heat of the action he ordered his soldiers to spare no 
one found with arms in his hands ; and so none Massacre 
were spared, not even the priests, whom the heda r ° g " 
Puritans hated with the most bitter hatred. (l649) - 
Cromwell felt that some explanation was required for 
such a barbarous act, even in an age when the horrors 
of the Thirty Years' War in Germany were still fresh 
in men's minds. So he wrote to the Speaker of the 
"Rump," as Parliament was called after Pride's Purge, 
that this slaughter was a righteous judgment upon the 
Irish for the massacres of 1641. He added that the 
remaining garrisons, seeing what their fate would be 
if they resisted to the end, would surrender before 
the storm, and that thus bloodshed would be avoided. 
There may have been some truth in this, for the future 
conquest was easy, and in a few months Cromwell was 
able to leave it to other hands, and to return to Eng- 
land, where his presence was much needed. In the 
end, the Irish were mainly driven out of three of the 
four provinces into which Ireland is divided, and 
were left to starve, as they had left the English set- 
tlers to starve years before. The only difference was 
that, as there were more Irish than English, there was 
now more suffering. Some years later, the Irish again 
tried to uphold the Stuart cause, and were again de- 
feated; but the complete subjection of the island 
really dates from this " Cromwellian settlement." 



1 82 THE COMMONWEALTH. [1649. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE COMMONWEALTH. 
1649-1653. 

THE Scots had never given up the hope of living 
under a Presbyterian ruler; so they invited 
Charles I.'s eldest son, Prince Charles, or Charles II., 
as they called him, to be their king. He came; but 
„, , before he was allowed to land, he was compelled 

Charles L 

ii- in to swear to the Covenant and to promise to be 
' a good Presbyterian. The young Charles cared 
very little for religion, and was very desirous of being 
a king. So he promised everything they asked of him, 
and was allowed to land and to be declared king. For 
a time the English leaders hardly knew what to do. 
Here was a young Charles ready to march through 
England, and there was every reason to suppose that 
many who had fought against the old king would 
not fight against his son, as he had never yet done 
anything despotic, and indeed had never had the 
opportunity. And besides, the Presbyterian leaders 
in the first rebellion were so dissatisfied at being gov- 
erned by the Independents in the army that it was 
probable they would welcome the prince with open 
arms as a deliverer. It was therefore decided by the 
English leaders that he must be captured or driven 
back to France, and that Scotland must be brought 
under English rule. Fairfax refused to lead the Eng- 



1651.] BATTLE OF WORCESTER. 1 83 

lish army, as he could not see why the Scots should 
not manage their own affairs as they chose. But 
Cromwell was of a different way of thinking, and he 
led the army to Edinburgh. 

But the Scots, who had learned the strength of the 
Ironsides at Preston, retired to the city, carrying with 
them all the food from the surrounding country. 

& J Battle of 

Cromwell dared not attack them in their strong Dunbar 
position, and retreated to Dunbar, where he 5 ° ' 
could get provisions from his fleet. The Scots fol- 
lowed, and posted themselves on top of a hill, where 
Cromwell could not get at them, and whence they 
could attack him whenever a good chance offered, and 
especially if he should try to march back to England. 
At last it seemed that their opportunity had come. 
So, late one afternoon, when they thought Cromwell 
could not see them, they descended the hill, and pre- 
pared to surprise him the next morning. But he had 
seen them; and, as they were setting out on their 
march to surprise him, the Ironsides burst upon them, 
and in one short hour swept the Scottish army to utter 
ruin. 

The next winter and spring Cromwell passed in 
Scotland, capturing some strong places, and trying to 
force into action another army which the young king 
had raised. The Scots were too wary for him, and sud- 
denly turning southward, they marched into England. 
Charles probably hoped that his father's friends would 
rally to his aid. But they had been so roughly treated 
after Preston that they dared not show their Battle of 
faces. Cromwell overtook the Scots at Wor- w° rces - 
cester, and after a severe fight routed them. ( l6 5 J )- 
Almost alone, and after many hair-breadth escapes, the 



1 84 THE COMMONWEALTH. [1652. 

young prince found his way to the sea-coast, and thence 
to France. It is related that during his flight he 
sought refuge amidst the leaves of a wide-spreading 
oak; and, until within the recollection of men now 
living, he who wished to show respect to the Stuart 
cause would hang an oak-branch over his doors. But 
the victory at Worcester put an end for a time to the 
hopes of the exiled prince. It was indeed, as Crom- 
well said, "a crowning mercy;" for it was the last 
battle of the civil wars. So long as the best-dis- 
ciplined army of the day remained of one mind, 
and under the guidance of the greatest commander 
of his time, no one dared, after this, to oppose it in 
battle. 

Upon the death of Charles I., Parliament had de- 
clared that there should be no more kings in Eng- 
land. In the future the country should be governed 
by a Parliament of one house. They called this 
new form of government "The Commonwealth." In 
reality, however, it was no republic, but a government 
by an oligarchy, or small number of persons. For what 
with "Pride's Purge," and the abolition of the House 
of Lords, the Long Parliament had dwindled down to 
The an assembly of only about fifty members, the 
ParHa- R- um P Parliament, as it was called. Now, among 
ment. these there were many dishonest men, who voted 
to exempt from confiscation the property of any Royal- 
ists who paid them a sufficiently large bribe. This, 
of course, made all honest men very angry. 

After the great victory at Worcester, Cromwell put 
himself at the head of this opposition. He and the 
army demanded that there should be a new election. 
The " Rump " seemed to agree to this. But one day 



1652.] 



THE RUMP PARLIAMENT. 



I8 5 




JOHN MILTON, THE PURITAN POET. 



Cromwell found that, in spite of promises which the 
leaders had made to him, they were about passing a 
bill to make themselves members of the new Parlia- 



1 86 THE COMMONWEALTH. [1653. 

ment, whether they should be re-elected or not. Crom- 
well thereupon went into the House, and standing in 
his place, accused them of dishonesty. He declared 
that they had forfeited the respect of the coun- 

The 

"Rump" try, and had no right to sit longer. Then, call- 
(1653)! m g i n hi s soldiers, he turned them out, and 
locked the door. No one was sorry for them, 
and, as Cromwell said, " We did not hear a dog bark 
at their going." The army officers then formed a 
council of state, and upon their advice Cromwell, as 
head of the army, summoned about one hundred and 
fifty of the leading Puritans to London to help him 
govern the country. 

Years after, when it had become the fashion to laugh 
at the Puritans, people called this assembly " Bare- 
Bare- bone's Parliament," after Praise-God Barebone, 
Parili a wealthy leather-dresser who had a seat in it. 
ment. B u t all its members were not mechanics, nor 
did they all bear such grotesque names. Yet they 
had little practical ability, and by trying, in a few 
short weeks, to reform the abuses of a hundred years, 
they accomplished nothing, and were glad to resign 
their power into the hands of Cromwell. 

The army officers next drew up an " Instrument of 
Government," or constitution, as we should now call 
The it. Some time before, Cromwell had declared 
me S nt U oi tnat " a settlement with somewhat of monarchi- 
ment rn " cal power would be very effectual." And this 
(1653). constitution made the chief ruler a monarch in 
reality, though only called Lord Protector. He had 
all executive power, although he was obliged to con- 
sult his council of state upon important matters. The 
power to raise money and to make laws was given to a 



i653-3 



THE INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 



I8 7 



Parliament of one house, which was to meet once every 
year. But the Lord Protector and the Council, when 
the Parliament was not sitting, could make temporary 
laws, to which the consent of Parliament must be 
obtained at its next session. 

It was impossible that, during these civil wars, lit- 
erature and art should flourish, as had been the case 
during the great reign of Elizabeth; but John Milton, 
the Puritan poet, has always ranked second among the 
great poets of England. 




WAGON OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 

FROM loggan's Oxonia Illustrata. 



1 88 THE PROTECTORATE. [1653. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE PROTECTORATE. 
1653-1659. 

OF course, there was but one man who could have 
secured the support of the army, and that man 
was Oliver Cromwell. So he was invested with the 
office of Lord Protector with as much pomp and cere- 
oiiver, mony as ever had been witnessed at the corona- 
Protec- ^ on °^ a king. In fact, since the days of the 
tor. « Grand Remonstrance," Oliver had procured a 
new tailor; and one writer, who describes him as 
being at first harsh and rough, says that he now pos- 
sessed "a great and majestic deportment, and a comely 
presence." 

Oliver's first Parliament came together in Septem- 
ber, 1654, and immediately denied the legality of the 
new constitution. The Protector, after a little while, 
went to them and told them that if 'the " Instrument of 
Government " was illegal, they had no business there. 
He then excluded all who did not agree to recognize 
his government, and, as soon as the constitution 
allowed, dissolved the Parliament itself. 

Scarcely had these over-zealous republicans left the 
House when two Royalists, Wagstaff and Penruddock, 
rode into Salisbury at the head of about two hundred 
men. They turned out the judges, who were then 
holding a court in that town, but they gained nothing, 



1655] WAR WITH HOLLAND. 1 89 

for a troop of Ironsides, which chanced to be in the 
neighborhood, soon killed or captured most of them. 
This little rising convinced Cromwell that the Royal- 
ists needed to be watched with greater care; so he 
divided England into military districts, to each The 
of which he assigned a major-general and a ™^° r ~ ]s 
sufficient number of soldiers. The Royalists ( l6 55)- 
were made to pay the cost of this supervision ; but the 
major-generals acted so harshly, " like so many Eastern 
Bashaws," that all good people were offended. In 
addition, Cromwell held it necessary to forbid the 
celebration of divine service according to the Episco- 
palian rites, as he thought that such meetings were 
the rallying points of those hostile to his rule. But 
this order was never strictly carried out, and meetings 
in private houses were seldom suppressed. The open- 
ing chapters of Scott's novel, "Peveril of the Peak," 
give a graphic description of the condition of affairs in 
England at this time. 

When Cromwell became Protector he found England 
at war with Holland. It might seem at first sight that 
as both countries were inhabited by Protestants, 

J War 

and had similar governments, they would have with 
been good friends. But this was not so, for 
they were commercial rivals. It chanced, too, that at 
this time the English were trying to get the carrying 
trade away from the Dutch, and, under the lead of 
Sir Harry Vane, once governor of Massachusetts, Par- 
liament had passed a Navigation Act, compelling Eng- 
lish merchants to import goods in English vessels, 
or else in those of the country where the goods were 
produced. This was aimed directly at the Hollanders, 
and the two nations were soon at war. The Dutch 



igO THE PROTECTORATE. [1657. 

fleet was very strong, and soon drove the English 
ships into harbor. Then the Dutch admiral, Van 
Van Tromp, sailed up and down the English Channel 
Tromp w j£h a broom lashed to his masthead, to show 
Blake, ^^t he was able to sweep the English from the 
seas. But this did not last long; for, after a series 
of desperate sea-fights, Admiral Blake compelled the 
Hollanders to cease their opposition to the Navigation 
Act, and to salute the English flag in the "narrow 
seas " surrounding the British Isles. 

Cromwell and Blake then turned their attention to 
the Spaniards, who had been harboring Prince Rupert 
and his privateers. Blake soon stopped that proceed- 
ing; and Admiral Penn, father of Penn, founder of 
Pennsylvania, failing to capture San Domingo, seized 
the island of Jamaica; while still another fleet took 
possession of some Spanish treasure-ships which had 
so much silver on board that it took thirty-eight 
wagons to convey it through the streets of London. 

It required a great deal of money to fit out these 
fleets and to pay the sailors. Cromwell could have 
wrung this from the Royalists by the aid of his major- 
generals, but he preferred to get it in a more consti- 
tutional way from a Parliament. No one was allowed 
to sit in this Parliament who was hostile to him, and 
therefore he had little difficulty in getting the money 
The he wanted. In return, he recalled the major- 
Petition generals. The Parliament then adopted a " Peti- 
Advice tion and Advice " to the Lord Protector, which 
(I 5 "' was really nothing but an amendment to the 
constitution. In some ways this restricted the Pro- 
tector's powers; in others enlarged them. It provided 
also for a new body to take the place of the old House 



1658.] DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. 191 

of Lords, gave Cromwell the right to name his succes- 
sor, and asked him to take the title of king. This last 
he refused, as the soldiers did not wish him to accept it. 
The new House of Lords did not turn out well. In the 
first place, not many of the old peers were willing to 
sit in it, and some of those created by Cromwell hardly 
deserved the distinction. Then again the new House 
of Commons, which was elected to work with it, called 
it in contempt "The Other House," and refused to 
have anything to do with it. In an angry speech, ex- 
claiming, "The Lord judge between you and me," 
Cromwell dissolved the Parliament. For the remainder 
of his life he ruled England by the strength of the 
army and by the silent consent of a majority of the 
people. 

If Cromwell was strong enough at home to rule 
without a Parliament, that "greatness was but a shadow 
of his glory abroad." He became the head of Protes- 
tant Europe, and his alliance was sought by the great- 
est monarchs of the time. He decided to support 
France in her war with Spain. The Ironsides, under 
the generalship of the great French commander, 
Turenne, proved irresistible. Dashing over fortifica- 
tions that had before been thought impregnable, they 
scattered the best infantry of Spain, just as they had 
routed Prince Rupert and his Cavaliers years before. 
Dunkirk was turned over to Cromwell as the price of 
his assistance. 

This was Oliver's last triumph on earth. It was 
in the same summer (of 1658) that George Fox, the 
Quaker, interceded with him on behalf of his fellow 
Quakers. " Before I came to him," wrote Fox, "as 
he rode at the head of his Life Guards, I saw and 



192 THE PROTECTORATE. [1658. 

felt a waft of death go against him ; and when I came 
, r to him he looked like a dead man." In truth. 

Death of . ' 

Cromwell anxiety and private sorrow had worn him out ; 
' and on the 3d of September, as the anniversary 
of Dunbar and Worcester was drawing to a close, he 
died. 

We might almost wish that Cromwell had died at 
Worcester fight. Then he would have come down to 
us as the leader of the victorious army in the cause of 
freedom. As Protector, he was the slave of a party, 
the army; and he ruled, not as he desired, but as the 
army wished. The minds of Strafford, Cromwell, and 
Laud were cast in the same mould. The first and last 
tried to force upon England forms of government and 
religion which it had outgrown. Cromwell, many 
years in advance of his time, tried to force upon his 
countrymen the government and religion of the future. 
Both attempts were failures, for successful revolutions 
are not made in that way. 

At first it seemed as if the revolution was to last 
longer than Cromwell, and his eldest son, Richard, 
succeeded him as quietly as ever a king's son had 
succeeded his father. But this quiet did not last long. 
A new Parliament, attempting to assert its power over 
the army, was turned out of the Parliament House. 
Richard then tried to rule the army, and it put an end to 
the protectorate. The officers meantime had brought 
back the " Rump." But the members of that body had 
learned nothing by experience. They, too, tried to gov- 
ern the army, and they, ere long, were turned out by it. 

The officers then governed the country without any 
attempt at concealing their usurpation. Men of all 
parties began to sigh for a settled form of government. 



i66o.] MONK'S POLICY. 193 

Even then the army might have maintained itself, if 
it had remained united. Fortunately for English lib- 
erty, however, the troops in Scotland, under General 
Monk, could not see what right their fellow-soldiers 
in England had to rule over them. So they marched 
to London, where they found the " Rump " once more 
in place. 

Now, however, there came another complication. 
The Londoners refused to pay taxes levied by the 
"Rump," on the ground that, as their members Monk's 
had been excluded at the time of "Pride's P olic ^ 
Purge, " they were not represented in the Parliament, 
and therefore were not bound to pay any taxes levied 
on its authority. The army easily put down this little 
rebellion. But Monk saw clearly enough that the 
mass of the nation was impatient of the rule of the 
army; so he declared for a free Parliament. It is 
possible that he did this because he thought that the 
return of the Stuart family would aid his own advance- 
ment. At all events, many people were delighted at 
the prospect of getting rid of the army and the " Rump," 
and fell to roasting rumps of beef on the street corners 
in London with such vigor that Pepys, who wrote a 
diary of the events of this period, relates that he 
counted thirty-six fires at one time. The Presbyte- 
rians once again took their places in the House of 
Commons, and after making provision for a new elec- 
tion, the Long Parliament dissolved itself on March 
16, 1660. 

At this, the most favorable time he could have 
chosen, Charles II. issued a Declaration from the 
little town of Breda, in Holland, where he was then 
living. In this declaration he offered a general 

13 



194 THE PROTECTORATE. [1660. 

pardon to all who should not be excepted by Parlia- 
ment from forgiveness, assured holders of the confis- 
The cated Royalist estates that they should not be 
to tora " disturbed in their possessions, and promised to 
(1660). persecute no one on account of his religion. 
The new Parliament came together in April, and at once 
invited the young Charles to return to England, and 
sent a fleet to convey him to his native land. He em- 
barked on the flag-ship, whose name he changed from 
"Naseby" to "Charles," and after a pleasant voyage 
entered London on the anniversary of his birth, May 

29, 1660. 

"Oh, the twenty-ninth of May, 

It was a glorious day, 
When the king did enjoy his own again ! " 

Scott's novel of "Woodstock" gives an animated 
description of this scene. 

The army that had so fiercely beaten Charles at 
Dunbar and Worcester, now disunited and powerless, 
received him, and then dispersed. But even then the 
Ironsides showed how unlike ordinary soldiers they 
were; for instead of becoming paupers and a burden 
on the community, they resumed their old occupations; 
and if one saw a particularly industrious farmer or 
mechanic, it might very well happen that he would 
turn out to be one of Cromwell's old soldiers. 
. Many persons suppose that the Puritans made severer 
laws than any persons who had ruled England before 
Puritan them, and that the time of the Commonwealth 
ideas. an( j Protectorate was a period of great intol- 
erance in religious matters. But this is quite untrue. 
On the contrary, the Puritan state was in most respects 
more tolerant and humane than any previous English 



i66o.] PURITAN IDEAS. 1 95 

government had been, and many great legal reforms 
date from that time. After 1558 no person was ever 
burned in England for his religious opinions, — a thing 
which had before been common, — and no one was put 
to death in any way for such opinions, except when 
returning to England after being previously banished. 
Of course this fell very far short of complete tolera- 
tion, but it was a great advance on what had been the 
earlier custom. Cromwell, moreover, allowed Jews to 
live in England for the first time since the reign of 
Edward I. Torture was abolished as a means of ob- 
taining confession, though it lasted nearly a century 
longer in most European countries, and was legal in 
one German state down to 1831. The principles of the 
Habeas Corpus Act were established under the Com- 
monwealth, although the Act itself did not follow until 
later, as will hereafter be shown. It also became the 
practice to examine all witnesses in open court, instead 
of condemning men, as had sometimes before been done, 
upon evidence taken in secret. All these were great 
steps in human progress. And though the Puritans 
forbade some innocent amusements, yet that was but 
a trifle compared with what they did to reform the 
terrible cruelty of the early English courts. 



196 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1660. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE RESTORED STUARTS. 
1 660-1 688. 

CHARLES II., the " restored" king, and his prin- 
cipal adviser, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, 
now acted as though nothing had happened since 1641. 
They even called the first law that was passed after 
The the "Restoration," the Act of the 12th year of 
tbnT* Charles's reign, just as if he had been reigning 
iif^l _ since 1649. Now it was easy enough to print 
l68 5)- such a figure in a book, and to make believe 
that all the laws of the Protectorate and the Long Par- 
liament were no laws at all. But the Cavaliers soon 
found that it would be as easy to make everybody 
around them really twenty years younger as to undo 
all the work of those twenty years ; so they found it 
necessary to confirm many of the laws of that period, 
among the rest the Navigation Act. They found, too, 
that it was impossible to revive many old customs 
which had gone out of use while there was no king in 
England. Thus, in old times, the king had the right 
to make the heiresses of the great landowners marry 
any one who pleased him, whether the bride liked 
the man or not. This and other similar rights had 
bound the landowners to the king, and had made it 
advisable for them to be attentive to him, and to 
vote as he wished in Parliament. These rights were 



i66o.] 



THE RESTORATION. 



197 



now swept away in a legal manner, and it was soon 
found that the ties which had hitherto bound the coun- 




CHARLES II. 



from the portrait by sir peter lely in 
Christ's hospital, London. 



try gentry to the king were greatly loosened. Before 
long, indeed, a country party began to be formed to 



I98 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1660. 

oppose the king and his courtiers by their votes in the 
Commons. 

During the civil wars the lands of the Church, of the 

king, and of the Royalists had been mostly confiscated. 

The king and the Church now had their estates 

Act of ° 

indem- restored to them, but the poorer Royalists were 

nity and ., . . . 

oblivion left to recover theirs as best they might through 
(l 0) ' the courts of law. If a sale of any kind could 
be proved, they could not get their estates again. 
Even when they did recover their homes they could 
not collect any rent for the use of their farms and 
houses during all these years. Moreover, all who had 
taken part in the Great Rebellion, except the king's 
judges and a few others, were pardoned. These things 
were done by what is called " An Act of Oblivion and 
Indemnity to those who had taken part in the late dis- 
orders. " But the disappointed Cavaliers declared that 
it was an Act of indemnity, or reward, for the Puritans, 
and of oblivion, or forgetfulness, for the services of the 
king's friends. 

Many of those who had borne a prominent part in 
the execution of Charles I. were imprisoned for life, 

thirteen were hanged, while others escaped, 
Regi- some to Switzerland, some to New England. 

These last could never be found, though the 
king sent the strictest orders for their arrest, and 
although we now know a good deal about their move- 
ments in this country. The most unjust execution 
was that of Sir Harry Vane. He had not got on 
well with Cromwell, and had taken little part in the 
events of the past few years ; but he was such an out- 
spoken republican that the king was afraid of him, and 
he was beheaded. Yet when one considers how many 



i66i.] THE CAVALIER PARLIAMENT. 1 99 

were guilty of treason and murder in the eyes of 
Charles and the Royalists, fourteen executions seem a 
very small number, compared with the practice of ear- 
lier kings. Indeed, some years later, when the gov- 
ernor of Virginia crushed a little rebellion in that 
colony, Charles, in alluding to it, declared that "the 
old fool has taken away more lives in that naked coun- 
try than I for the murder of my father." 

In the day of their triumph the Presbyterians had 
often treated the Episcopalians with harshness; and 
if they expected that the Episcopalians, whom 
they had restored to power, would treat them cavalier 
as friends, they soon found that all such expec- merit*" 
tations were vain. It was in the spring of (l 6 66l r 
1661 that the new Parliament came together. 
The House of Commons, elected in the midst of the 
reaction against the Puritans, was so completely in the 
hands of the Royalists that it went by the name of 
the Cavalier Parliament. Later on its members be- 
came so corrupt that they took bribes from all sides, 
and it then was called the Pensioned Parliament. 

The first law against the Presbyterians and Indepen- 
dents was called the Corporation Act, because by it 
all but Episcopalians were turned out of the 

. . ^t-i Corpora- 

Offices in the cities. The next year came the tion Act 

Act of Uniformity, requiring all ministers and 
teachers who did not accept everything in the Episcopal 
service-book to leave their places. Two years later all 
religious meetings, other than those of the Episcopali- 
ans, were declared illegal by the Conventicle Act. By 
these laws all the Puritans had been driven from the 
schools and churches. It so happened that the very 
next year (1665) a dreadful disease, called the Plague, 



200 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1665. 

raged with fearful violence in London. Every one 
who was able to leave the city ran away as fast as he 
could. Among the first to seek safety in flight 
plague were the ministers of the Episcopal Church. 
(l *'' The Nonconformists thought it a pity that the 
poor in London should die without the consolation 
which a minister alone can give, and they took the pul- 
pits left vacant by their persecutors. Their reward for 
this heroism was the Five-Mile Act, which forbade any 
minister who had not subscribed to the Act of Uni- 
formity from coming within five miles of any place in 
which he had once been a minister. To make sure 
that these various laws were carried out, a single jus- 
tice of the peace, without any jury, was given author- 
ity to try and convict these people, and to sentence 
them to transportation for seven years to any place 
outside of England, except to New England, for there 
they would find friends and sympathizers. 

It is difficult to describe the sufferings of these pious 
men. But Richard Baxter, one of their number, has 
left the following : " Many hundred of them, with their 
wives and children, had neither houses nor bread. 
Some lived on little more than brown bread and water, 
many had but eight or ten pounds to maintain a family, 
so that a piece of flesh has not come to one of their 
tables in six weeks' time. Many, being afraid to lay 
down their ministry after they had been ordained to it, 
preached to such as would hear them in fields and pri- 
vate houses till they were seized and cast into jails, 
where many of them perished." The result of this 
cruelty no one foresaw at the time; for in the end, 
instead of converting the Puritans to the Established 
Church, it gave them a hatred for that Church, and 



1666.] THE GREAT FIRE. 201 

they ceased to regard themselves as a part of it. They 
formed little churches of their own, and from „ 

• The 

Nonconformists became Dissenters, or people Dissen- 
outside of the regular Church. The Episcopa- 
lians, finding that the Dissenters no longer wished to 
change the forms of the Episcopalian service, relaxed 
law after law, until now religion is as free in England 
as in our own land, except that the Episcopal Church 
is established by law as the State religion, and the 
various forms of dissent are only tolerated. 

The Great Plague was in 1665. In September of the 
next year many of those who had escaped the plague 
saw their homes and places of business burned The 
down by the Great Fire of London, without being ^IrT 
able to save anything. The fire began in the shop ( l666 )- 
of a French baker, near the end of London Bridge. In 
those days the houses were built of wood, and thatched 
with straw. A furious east wind fanned the flames, 
and before the fire could be stopped by destroying 
houses in its path, London, from the Tower to the 
Temple, and from the river in some places a mile 
inland, was in ashes. 

Baxter has left us a vivid picture of this event : — 

" It was a sight that might have given any man a lively 
sense of the vanity of this world, and all the wealth and glory 
of it, and of the future conflagration of all the world. To see 
the flames mount up to heaven and proceed without restraint ; 
to see the streets filled with the people astonished, that had 
scarce sense left them to lament their own calamity ; to see 
the fields filled with heaps of goods, and sumptuous buildings, 
curious rooms, costly furniture, and household stuff, yea, ware- 
houses and furnished shops and libraries, all in a flame, and 
none durst come near to receive anything; to see the king 



202 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1666. 

and nobles ride about the streets, beholding all these desola- 
tions, and none could afford the least relief." 

So wide was the sympathy excited by this great ca- 
lamity that collections were taken up in the New Eng- 
land churches for the relief of the sufferers ; and those 
of Charlestown, Mass., alone sent ^105 sterling. 

Meantime the English and Dutch had again come to 

blows about their commercial interests. This time 

the Dutch were successful. They entered the 

War 

with the Thames, and sailing into the Medway, burned 
(1666- Sheerness and the shipping at Chatham. They 
l66;) * then blockaded the mouth of the Thames for 
some weeks, although at the peace which followed, 
they confirmed England in her possession of the New 
Netherlands, which were now called the Province of 
New York, in honor of James, Duke of York, the 
king's brother. Now the English people did not at 
all like such defeats. They soon discovered that much 
of the money which Parliament had voted for the carry- 
ing on of the war had gone into the pockets of the 
worthless men and women by whom Charles was sur- 
rounded. They were too loyal to accuse the king of 
stealing, but they fell heavily on Clarendon, who had 
managed to offend all parties. Knowing that many of 
his acts would not bear investigation, Clarendon fled to 
the Continent, and passed the remainder of his life in 
writing his attractive, though untrustworthy, history 
of the Great Rebellion. The Commons then declared 
that no more money should be voted unless an officer 
in whom they had confidence should have the spending 
of it. This was a very serious limitation of the king's 
authority, and Charles resisted as long as he dared. 
But the Commons were in earnest, and as he above 



1670.J THE SECRET TREATY OF DOVER. 203 

all did not wish, as he expressed it, to " set out on 
his travels again," he yielded to their demands, and 
a great step towards parliamentary government was 
taken. 

There were many, too, who remembered the victo- 
ries of the great Puritan Admiral Blake. They con- 
trasted the gayety and license of the present time with 
the morality of the past, and "did not stick to say that 
things were better ordered in Cromwell's time, for 
then seamen had all their pay, and were not permitted 
to swear, but were clapped into the bilboes, and if the 
officers did they were turned out, and then God gave a 
blessing to them." In those old days Cromwell had 
been the arbiter of all Europe. Charles II. was now 
the paid servant of the King of France. 

Louis XIV., who was then on the French throne, 
wished to make France the foremost country in Europe. 
As a step in this attempt he determined to Th 
seize the little strip of land on the north of Se cret 

r Treaty of 

France which we now call Belgium, but which Dover 
was then known as the Spanish Netherlands. 
Spain was too weak to offer much opposition, but Hol- 
land was strong, and did not at all relish the thought 
of having France for such a near neighbor. Now 
Louis saw that, although as rivals in business, the 
English and Hollanders might quarrel, yet as fellow- 
Protestants it was hardly probable that England would 
stand still and see Holland defeated by France. He 
therefore offered Charles a considerable sum of money 
if he would help him against the Dutch, and declare 
himself a Catholic. Charles agreed, by a secret treaty, 
signed at Dover in 1670, to do both these things, for 
he wanted money, and was at heart a Catholic. Louis 



204 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1673. 

then invaded Holland. But the sturdy Hollanders were 
not easily beaten. The young Prince of Orange was 
given the command. He cut the dikes, and let the 
waters of the ocean flow over the country, except 
where the walls of the towns kept them out. And 
the French, to avoid being drowned, ran away as fast 
as they could. The English people now forced Charles 
to make peace with the Dutch. Some years after this, 
the Prince of Orange, William by name, came over to 
England, and married the eldest daughter of the Duke 
of York. We shall meet with him again, for he after- 
wards became King of England. 

Nor did Charles succeed much better in an attempt 
to make things easier for the English Catholics. In 
Deciara- l &7 2 ne issued what was called a Declaration 
tion of of Indulgence, because by it the king gave notice 
gences to the Catholic and Protestant Dissenters that 
the laws aimed against them would not be 
carried out. These last might have accepted this in- 
dulgence for themselves; but when it was offered 
to the Catholics also, the Dissenters refused to take 
any advantage of it. Moreover, they joined with the 
Episcopalians in Parliament, and compelled the 
Test Act king to recall it. They even went further, and 
' passed the Test Act, requiring all the great 

officers of state to take part in the service of the Eng- 
lish Church or resign. This was especially aimed at 
the Duke of York, who was supposed to be a Catholic, 
and he acknowledged the truth of the suspicion by 
resigning. 

It may be that even then the existence of the Secret 
Treaty of Dover was known, by which Charles had sold 
himself to the French king. But the full extent of 



1678.] POPISH PLOT. 205 

his infamy was not known until the spring of 1678, 
when Ralph Montague, then English minister to 
France, suddenly appeared in his place in the Com- 
mons, and read a letter ordering him to tell Louis 
that, if he would pay Charles £24,000 a year for three 
years, England would remain neutral in the war which 
France was then waging against Holland. A post- 
script to this letter was in the king's own handwriting, 
and the date of the letter was only five days after the 
Commons had actually voted money to enable Charles 
to aid the Dutch. Naturally the whole nation was 
furious. The Commons could not touch the king, but 
they impeached Danby, the Secretary of State. 

It was while the people were thus wrought up that 
Titus Oates appeared before Sir Edmondsbury God- 
frey, and on his oath declared that the Roman „„ ., 

. . . . Popish 

Catholics were plotting to murder the king, in Plot" 
order to put the Catholic James, Duke of York, * ' 
on the throne. In ordinary times no one would have 
placed any confidence in what Oates said, for he 
was a miserable wretch, and James was so unpopular 
that Charles said to him, " No one will murder me to 
set you on the throne." But these were no ordinary 
times, and a few days later the excitement grew into 
a perfect frenzy when Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey was 
found on a lonely hillside with a sword sticking into 
his lifeless body. To this day no one really knows 
whether he killed himself or was murdered. At the 
time, however, most Englishmen believed that the 
Catholics had killed him, and were very ready to be- 
lieve anything that Titus Oates might say. There 
may, indeed, have been some truth in the story. At 
any rate, many Catholics were executed, and because 



206 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1679. 

Oates had declared that the London fire had been the 
work of Catholics, a lying inscription to that effect 
was placed on the monument which marks the spot 
where it was first discovered. This inscription was 
taken down at James's accession. It was replaced 
after the Revolution of 1688, and was not finally 
removed until 1831. Even more unjust was a law 
excluding Catholics from Parliament; and this was 
not repealed till 1829. 

The Cavalier Parliament, which had been so loyal at 
its first assembling, had now become very hostile to 
Habeas the king. He dissolved it, and a new Parlia- 
Corpus ment met [ n March, 1679. This lasted for less 
(1679)- than three months; but in that short time it 
passed one of the most important laws in the whole 
history of the English race. This was the Habeas 
Corpus Act. Of course, ever since the days of Magna 
Charta, every free Englishman had possessed in theory 
the right to a speedy trial. But in practice so many 
obstacles could be interposed that the right was often 
denied. By this Act any judge was obliged to grant 
at any time a writ, or paper, addressed to the jailer, 
ordering him to produce his prisoner in court at such 
a time, and to show cause why the prisoner should not 
be released. The judge's order, or writ, began with 
the Latin words Habeas corpus, meaning, " You must 
have the body of such a person before me at such a 
time," etc. It is therefore called a writ of habeas 
corpus. The judge and jailer were subject to heavy 
fine if they disobeyed the Act; and therefore since 
that time no one has been imprisoned in England for 
any length of time without a good reason. In times 
of great public excitement, Parliament has sometimes 



1683.] RYE HOUSE PLOT. 207 

suspended the operation of the Act, thereby giving the 
Government power to keep suspected persons in jail, 
even when a clear case could not be made out against 
them. 

This Act was really passed because people were 
afraid of the Roman Catholic James; and they even 
went further, and tried to exclude him from 

. ii Exclu- 

the succession to the throne. Unf ortunately, sion Bills 
instead of naming the next heir, the Princess 
Mary of Orange, they named a worthless illegiti- 
mate son of Charles, the Duke of Monmouth, The 
scheme fell through ; but the struggle gave rise to two 
party names that have ever since been famous. It 
seems that the Presbyterians in the west of Scotland 
were called "Whigs." The name spread to England, 
and was applied by the courtiers in derision to their 
opponents. These in turn called the king's men 
" Tories, " — a name under which some wild Irish Catho- 
lics had plundered their Protestant neighbors. And 
as Whigs and Tories the two parties have been known 
until recent times ; and the same names were formerly 
used for political parties in America. 

The bill to exclude James failed, and then there 
was a reaction in favor of the king. Indeed, for a 
while it seemed as though the times of Charles R ye 
I. and his policy of " Thorough " had returned. p^ se 
Some of the Whigs, driven to desperation, ( l68 3)- 
planned to kill the king at a lonely spot near the 
Rye House. The plot was discovered, and Lord 
Russell and Algernon Sydney — to whom we owe 
the motto on the shield of one American State — 
were unjustly executed, while the Earl of Essex killed 
himself in prison. The defeat of this plot greatly 



208 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1685. 

strengthened the hands of the king, and he was fast 
becoming as absolute as his father, when he died. On 
his death-bed he professed himself a Roman Catholic. 
As he had no lawful descendants, his brother James, 
Duke of York, became king. 

The first thing James the Second did was to revenge 

himself on Titus Oates and his fellow informers for 

the lies they had told about the Catholics. 

James II. 

(1685- They were whipped so severely that one of them 
died. But Oates had strength to survive and 
be forgotten. 

The king then undertook to suppress the rebellion 
which had broken out in the North and West. In the 
North the revolt was easily subdued, and Argyle, the 
leader, executed. But the rising in the southwest of 
England, where Monmouth had put himself at the 
head of a considerable army, was not so easily quelled. 
Indeed, it seemed for a short time as if the young 
king — for such Monmouth declared himself to be — 
would succeed. His soldiers, however, were 
Sedgt° f poorly armed and led. They were beaten in the 
™°™ battle of Sedgemoor, which should be remem- 
bered as the last battle fought on English soil. 
Monmouth himself was found partially concealed in a 
ditch, and was taken to London and executed, although 
he begged on his knees that his father's brother would 
grant his life. The king then ordered the persecution 
and death of all who had in any way helped the un- 
fortunate duke. It is impossible to say how many 
were killed, but in one county two hundred and thirty- 
three persons were hanged. Probably at least four 
hundred lost their lives, and as many more were sold 
into slavery. All this was done by a judge named 



i68 5 .] 



THE BLOODY ASSIZE. 



209 



Jeffreys, at a session of court which has ever since 
been called "The Bloody Assize." The name of 
Jeffreys has always been infamous in consequence of 
these trials; but it is now admitted that he was not 
more harsh and brutal than was the custom of English 
judges at his day. There was then a great deal of 
cruelty and brutality in the habits of the English race, 
and the courts shared this bad character. 




YEOMEN OF THE GUARD : FROM sandford's Coronation Procession 
of James II. 



2IO THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. [1688. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" OF 1688-1689. 

AS soon as Monmouth was fairly out of the way, 
James threw off the mask, and devoted all his 
energies to making England a Roman Catholic coun- 
try. Though the Test Act declared that no one but an 

Episcopalian could hold office, James appointed 
<?sh CaSe Sir Edward Hales, a Roman Catholic, colonel 
HaiS rd °f a re gi ment - The judges, who had been 

appointed for this very purpose, declaring that 
the king could waive the penalties of a statute in a 
particular case, Sir Edward Hales retained his place 
until he became governor of the important fortress and 
prison, London Tower. Roman Catholics were by 
degrees given places in the Privy Council, the univer- 
sities, and even in the English Church itself. 

In 159S Henry IV. of France had issued the 
Edict of Nantes, giving the French Protestants equal 

political rights with the French Catholics, and 

Revoca- r & . . ' . 

tionof securing to them a certain measure of religious 
of 6 C freedom. Louis XIV. revoked this edict in 

Nantes. ^^ Jt . g gaid ^^ fifty t h ousand Hugue- 

not families fled from France. Many of them took 
refuge in England, and set up the silk manufac- 
ture in the Spitalfields, now a part of London. They 
were very poor, and a collection was authorized in 
their behalf in the churches. But King James was so 



1688.] THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 211 

afraid that the ministers would tell the truth about the 
way these poor people had been treated that he ordered 
the clergy not to preach against the Roman Catholics. 
The Bishop of London, refusing to punish one of his 
subordinates who had disobeyed this order, was him- 
self summoned before a new and illegal High Commis- 
sion Court, and suspended from office. 

Now James determined to go one step farther, and 
grant general liberty of conscience to all Englishmen, 
whether Protestants or Roman Catholics. This _ . 

Declara- 

was entirely different from dispensing with a tionof 

• • i t • i Indul- 

smgle statute in a particular case. It is proba- gences 
ble that James hoped to gain the Dissenters to 
his side by this Act. A few, indeed, took advantage of 
it. But it shows the bitterness of religious hostility at 
that time that the great mass preferred to suffer all the 
rigors of the law rather than to see the Roman Catho- 
lics well treated. The clergy had been ordered to read 
the declaration to their congregations, as that was the 
easiest way of making it generally known. The Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and six bishops petitioned the 
king not to insist on their reading it. He did insist, 
however, and the declaration was read by a few minis- 
ters who were too timid to refuse. As for the arch- 
bishop and his companions, the Seven Bishops, as 
they were called, James had them arrested, on the 
ground that their petition was a seditious libel. They 
were taken to the Tower, where the Catholic mi 

ihe 

Sir Edward Hales was sure to keep them safe. Seven 
But the people were on their side. Even 
the soldiers on guard at the gateway of the Tower 
knelt before them, asking their blessing. Later they 
drank to their good health and acquittal. The excite- 



212 THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. [1688. 

ment spread to the remotest corners of England; and 
the Cornish miners declared their intention of march- 
ing to London and rescuing their beloved bishop, 
Trelawney, one of the seven. They sang a song 
beginning, — 

" And shall Trelawney die? 
And shall Trelawney die ? 
Then thirty thousand Cornish men 
Will know the reason why." 

This sympathy was not confined to the Episcopalians. 
The Nonconformists visited the Tower, as did also an 
enormous number of persons of all grades and ranks, 
from the peers down to the humblest. It was in the 
midst of this excitement that the king's Catholic wife 
gave birth to a son who is known in history as the 
Old Pretender. 

No one but Catholics had been present at the birth, 

and the English people generally declared that the 

boy was no son of the king's, but some spu- 

Preten- rious child palmed off on them by the Jesuits. 

der. 

It was plain that the child, if he was the real 
son of James, was the heir to the English throne, to 
the exclusion of the Protestant Mary of Orange, wife 
of the heroic William. So the people, especially the 
Whigs, refused to believe that he was a genuine son, 
and determined to rebel at the first good opportunity. 

Every one was now waiting to hear the result of the 

trial of the Seven Bishops. For a long time the jury 

wavered. Eleven of the twelve were for ac- 

The 

Seven quittal. The twelfth was the king's brewer. He 

acquitted said that he should be ruined if he voted against 

the king. But he was at length brought over, 

and the verdict of " Not guilty " was received with an 



i688.] WILLIAM LANDS. 213 

enthusiasm witnessed but once in a century. Even 
the royal army, which James had brought to London 
to put down a rising, should there be one, showed 
by their cheers that their sympathies were with the 
people. The Patriot leaders saw that now at last the 
time had come to act. Admiral Herbert, dis- 
guised as a common sailor, set out for Holland. Inv f ta . 
He was the bearer of a letter signed by the most wliiiam 
influential among the Whigs and Tories, asking 
William to come to England to protect the rights of 
his wife against the spurious son of James, and to save 
England from a Catholic tyranny. 

William joyfully accepted the invitation. He loved 
his wife, and did not wish her to be deprived of her 
rights. But above all, he desired to be king of 
England, that he might use England's strength, both 
of men and money, in the grand struggle he was 
making against the power and ambition of Louis XIV. 
of France. 

Everything favored William. His proclamation was 
received with rejoicings, while the concessions made 
by James were looked on with suspicion, as wniiam 
people saw that they had been extorted by lands - 
fear. Louis, too, offered to help James, by attacking 
William, and thus keeping him at home in Holland. 
But James scornfully refused, and the French king, 
in a rage, sent his army into Germany. Even the 
winds helped William ; for, though at first adverse, 
the breeze soon became favorable, and then increas- 
ing, the strong east wind — " the Protestant east wind," 
as they used to call it, — drove William's ships safely 
through the English Channel, while at the same time 
it kept the English fleet cooped up in the Thames. 



214 THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. [1688. 

William landed at Torbay, in Devonshire, on the 5th 
of November, 1688, the anniversary of the Gunpowder 
Plot. 

For several days no prominent men joined him, and 

it is said that he was on the point of returning to 

Holland, when they began to come. Among the 

James 

runs first to arrive was Lord Churchill, afterwards 
the celebrated Duke of Marlborough. His wife 
was the most intimate friend of the Princess Anne". 
And so it fell out that when Lord Churchill deserted 
his master, the Princess Anne ran away from her 
father. " God help me ! " cried the abandoned James, 
"even my children have forsaken me." So he sent 
his wife and son to France, and then escaped himself. 

Unluckily, however, some fishermen caught sight 
of him as he was leaving the shore. Mistaking him 
TT . for the Jesuit Father Petre, they seized him. 

He is J ' J 

brought Soon he was in London again, — much to the 
dismay of William, who would have had the 
field all to himself if he could have said that James had 
deserted his people. James was easily scared away 
again, however, and care was taken this time that he 
should not be stopped. Louis received him, and gave 
him a palace to live in. But the means used to 

Ihe i 

Jacob- get rid of him seemed to many good people so 

ites. 

very much like force that they took his side, and 
were called, from James's Latin name of Jacobus, 
Jacobites. 

William now summoned the Peers, and all who had 
sat in the House of Commons during the reign of 
Charles the Second, to meet him at Westminster 
and advise him as to what he should do. Upon 
their advice he summoned a Parliament, though it 



1689] DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 21 5 

was called a Convention for the time being. It met on 
the 14th of March, 1689, and after some discussion of- 
fered the crown to Mary. But she was too loyal 
to her husband to accept it, and he on his part Conven- 
declared that he would not be his wife's ser- 
vant. So, after more discussion, the crown was offered 
to William and Mary as king and queen; William to 
have control of affairs. At the same time the „ , 

Declara- 

Lords and Commons presented a Declaration of tion of 
the Rights of the people of England. The main 
points of this great declaration, which was afterwards 
made into a regular law, were that the king had no 
power, without consent of Parliament, (1) to dispense 
with the laws, (2) to raise money, or (3) to keep a 
standing army. It was further declared (4) that the 
subjects had a right to bear arms, (5) to petition the 
king, and (6) to have freedom of debate in Parliament. 
(7) The High Commission Court was declared illegal, 
and (8) frequent Parliaments were declared necessary. 
On these terms the throne was offered to William and 
Mary, and accepted by them. Henceforth no English 
king could claim to rule by divine right, but only by 
the will of the nation. 



2l6 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1689. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. 

I^HE Declaration of Rights did not seem to be all 
that was necessary to protect the people. So, 
to make sure that no king could again turn tyrant, 
Parliament granted William the revenues from customs 
for a few years, instead of for life, as had hereto - 
andEyf° re been done. Then, too, the Commons said 
i702)7 t ^ iat * or t ^ Q f uture money must be spent on the 
objects specified in the vote. This was to 
guard against the king's obtaining money for some 
particular purpose, like the navy, and then spending 
it to keep up a large army to hold the people down. 
To still further guard against the same evil, Parlia- 
ment voted the bill giving the army officers 
Mutiny control over the soldiers — the Mutiny Bill, as 

Bill 

it is called — for one year. If Parliament for 
any cause should wish to disband the army, it had only 
to refuse to pass a new Mutiny Bill ; for when the old 
one expired, the army would drop to pieces, as the 
soldiers could not be punished for disobeying the 
officers. And this practice of passing money and 
mutiny bills has lasted to our own times. This is 
a very important fact, for in this way the House of 
Commons has obtained control of the government, as 
it is in that House that money bills are first passed. 
The king was, and is, obliged to have for his ministers 



1689.] RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT. 21 J 

men who have the confidence of a majority in that 
House; in other words, men who can get these very 
bills through Parliament. In this way the great Brit- 
ish Empire has come to be ruled by a committee of 
the party which for the moment has a majority in 
the House of Commons. This is called " responsible 
government," as these men are responsible to the 
House of Commons, and through it to the people of 
England. 

The next thing Parliament did was to pass a law de- 
claring that all officers in church and state must swear 
to support William and Mary as king and queen. 
Non- Many good people still believed that James was 
the real king, and refused to swear. They were 
called non-jurors (non-swearers). They were sincere, 
and did what they thought was right; but their ac- 
tions made William's position much more difficult. 
It was found impossible to repeal the harsh Acts which 
the Cavaliers had passed against the Dissenters. But 
one great step was made in the passage of the Tolera- 
tion Act, allowing Dissenters to stay away from the 
Episcopal service without being fined. 

Now that William was firm on the throne, James was 
glad to accept the helping hand held out by Louis of 
France. The Irish were devout Roman Catholics, and 
were thus disposed to be friendly to James. It is 
probable, too, that the Irish leaders hoped that by 
aiding James they might free Ireland from the Eng- 
lish yoke. At any rate, no sooner had James fled to 
France than they made war on the English and Pro- 
testant settlers in Ireland, and compelled them to seek 
refuge in two towns in the northern part of Ireland, 
Enniskillen and Londonderry. Soon James came over 



21 8 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1689. 

with some French soldiers, and siege was laid to the 
two towns. The garrison of Enniskillen, sallying forth, 
drove their assailants away. Those at Londonderry 




WILLIAM III. : AFTER A PORTRAIT BY J. H BRANDON. 



ate everything that was eatable in the town, inclu- 
r ding all the rats and salt hides. Then at length 

Siege of 

London- two London ships broke through the obstructions 



derry. 



which the Irish had placed in the mouth of 



[690.] 



BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 



219 



of the harbor, and the town was saved, after one of the 
most persistent defences in history. 

The next year William himself went to Ireland with 




MARY II. : AFTER A PORTRAIT BY J. H. BRANDON. 



a famous French general, — Schomberg, — whom Louis 
had driven from France because he was a Hugue- Batt]e 
not. They fought with James and his French ° f the 

J ° J Boyne 

and Irish troops at the Battle of the Boyne, and (1690). 



220 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1690. 

beat him so thoroughly that he fled to France as fast 
as horse and ship would carry him. Nevertheless, it 
took several years to reconquer Ireland thoroughly. 

The news of this great victory reached England in 
good time, for Admiral Herbert — now Lord Torrington 
Beachy — had been badly beaten the very day before 
Head. -^ t ^ e p rencn ff Beachy Head. The French 
admiral then landed his soldiers and set fire to the huts 
of some poor fishermen who lived in a little town in the 
southern part of England. This outrage so angered 
the English people that thousands who had hitherto 
been lukewarm now came to the assistance of William 
and Mary, and did all they could to save the land from 
James and his allies. 

In fact, all danger from the Jacobites was for the 
moment at an end. William crossed over to Holland 
and took his place at the head of the European powers 
who were opposed to Louis. Now the French king 
thought that the best way to compel William's return 
to England would be to send James over there. So 
he gathered a great army at Boulogne. James was so 
sure of being successful that he drew up a proclama- 
tion, telling people what would happen when he was on 
the throne again. Among other things he said that 
the ignorant fishermen who had stopped him on his 
first attempt to escape would be treated as traitors, and 
have their heads cut off. Indeed, the proclamation 
was so ridiculous that the English Government re- 
printed it, and sent copies all over the country at its 
own expense. But James never got to England again, 
for an English fleet under Admiral Russell swept from 
the seas the French fleet that was to have conveyed 
him to England. The English sailors remembered 



1693] BANK OF ENGLAND, 221 

the humiliation of Beachy Head, and now at La 
Hogue sank, captured, or drove ashore every French 
ship. They even rowed in small boats right 
up to some ships that had taken refuge under Hogue 
the guns of a fort, and set them on fire. All * 92 ' 
this was done under the eyes of James himself. There 
was no longer any need for William to feel anxious for 
England. At the Peace of Ryswick (1697) Louis was 
compelled to give back all the places he had seized. 
This was mainly owing to the pluck and skill of Wil- 
liam; for though he seldom won battles, he knew 
how to prevent the French from making any use of 
their victories, — and that is sometimes as important 
as winning battles. 

The fight which William was so manfully making 
was not merely a fight for the Protestant religion, but 
a struggle for English liberty. His success would 
benefit succeeding generations for hundreds of 
years. So the Government borrowed a portion financial 
of the funds needed to support the armies, the 
first loan being made in 1693. It was the beginning 
of the English national debt. 

At this time there were no banks in England. All 
large sums of money were collected and paid through 
the goldsmiths and silversmiths of London, Bank of 
who in this way acted as bankers. Of course En s land - 
this was not a very secure way of doing business, as 
everything depended upon the honesty of some par- 
ticular man. So a Scotchman named Paterson agreed 
to establish a national bank. As an inducement for 
the authorities to give him the necessary power, he 
proposed to lend to the Government one-half the capi- 
tal of the bank. Thus the Government would be able 



222 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1692. 

to borrow money, and at the same time the share- 
holders and those who had deposited money in the 
bank would be interested in the stability of the Gov- 
ernment of William, because if it should be overthrown 
they would never get their money back. In this way 
the Bank of England was established. 

Another great reform was the recoinage of the cur- 
rency. To-day an English gold sovereign is good the 
world over; but two hundred years ago this was not 
the case. The money then in circulation had been 
coined with smooth edges. Any one could clip off a 
little without its being noticed. In the end, however, 
so much might be clipped off that the coin would not 
be worth anything like its face value. The merchants 
refused to take these coins in payment, except by 
weight, so many ounces of gold or silver for so many 
pounds of bread and butter. Of course this was very 
inconvenient, and the Government employed Sir Isaac 
Newton, the great philosopher, to make some new 
coins. The new pieces had milled edges, and could 
not be clipped. 

In this year, too, the "Licensing Act" of 1660, 
which had placed the control of printing in the Gov- 
ernment, expired by limitation, and Parliament 
ofthe ty refused to renew it. Since that time every 
0690. one nas k een at liberty to publish anything he 
chooses. But he is responsible for what he 
publishes, as he is for everything else he does. 

The one great blot upon William's name is the 
massacre of Glencoe. Ian Maclan, chief of the 

Massacre 

of Glen- Macdonalds, who lived in Glencoe, in a fit of 

stubborn pride had waited until all the other 

chiefs had taken the oath of submission to William 



1694] DEATH OF QUEEN MARY. 223 

and Mary. Then he went to the nearest fort, and 
offered to take the oath ; but there was no one there 
who could administer it. Now thoroughly alarmed, be- 
cause those who did not take the oath before a certain 
day were to be declared outlawed, he trudged over the 
snow to Inverary, only to find when he arrived there 
that it was too late. The sheriff, however, made out 
a paper to the effect that the chief had tried to take the 
oath at the proper time ; indeed, he took it then only 
six days late. It chanced that the king's representative 
in Scotland at that time was a bitter enemy to the 
Macdonalds. He contrived to suppress the fact that 
Maclan had offered to take the oath at a proper time, 
and obtained from William an order to " extirpate the 
Macdonalds of Glencoe." This sentence was in the 
middle of a long document, and it is probable that 
William never saw it. At all events, one morning 
in February, 1692, a company of Scottish soldiers, led 
by Campbell of Glenlyon, after enjoying the hospitali- 
ties of the Macdonalds for two weeks, suddenly fell on 
them and killed thirty-eight on the spot. The remain- 
der fled to the mountains. How many died from cold 
and hunger will never be known. The act was one of 
private revenge on the part of the Campbells. But it 
was done under orders, and William felt obliged to 
shelter the authors, and no one was ever punished. 

Queen Mary died in 1694. This was a great loss 
to William, for she was very popular with the people, 
while he was very unpopular. Indeed, it might have 
gone hard with him, had not Louis of France, in 
defiance of treaties and promises, put his son on the 
throne of Spain. This aroused the jealousy of the 
English people, and William soon found himself at 



224 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1704. 

the head of another Grand Alliance of Europe against 
the Bourbons. Just at this moment the exiled James II. 
died in his borrowed palace of St. Germain's. In direct 
opposition to the Treaty of Ryswick, Louis acknowl- 
edged James's son James (the "Old Pretender") as 
king of England. All England was now anxious for 
war. But William was not again to lead the armies of 
Europe. In the winter of 1702 he was thrown from 
his horse, and a few weeks later he died. Suspended 
about his neck, where no one could see it, was a locket 
containing a gold ring and a lock of Mary's hair. 

As William and Mary had no children, Mary's 
younger sister, the Princess Anne, became queen. 
Queen She was more of a Stuart than Mary, and al- 
(1702- l° we d herself to be ruled by favorites, as her 
1714)- ancestors had allowed themselves to be ruled. 
During the first part of her reign her favorite was 
the wife of the Earl, afterwards the Duke, of Marl- 
borough. This Marlborough was a selfish man. But 
he saw that by carrying out the plans of William he 
might make a great name for himself. And, indeed, 
for the next few years he was the real ruler of Eng- 
land, and even took William's place at the head of the 
Alliance against Louis. 

The first year he accomplished little. But in 1704 
he broke away from the Dutch allies, who always pre- 
vented his doing anything at all hazardous. 

Battle of _ _ , . , -A /. ,1 xt 1 

Blenheim Marching up the Rhine and the Neckar, he 
( I 704)- crosse d over the mountains to Donauworth, on 
the Danube. There he was joined by an Austrian army 
under Prince Eugene. They encountered the French 
and their allies, the Bavarians, at the little town of 
Hochstadt. The two opposing forces had no sooner 



1704.] BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 225 

come into contact than Marlborough saw that the 
enemy had stationed a large part of his army in the 
village of Blenheim, at the end of the line. He there- 



QUEEN ANNE : FROM A PORTRAIT BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER. 

fore made the middle of his own line as strong as 
possible. Then, while a false attack was made on 
Blenheim on the one flank, and while Prince Eugene 

15 



226 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1704 

kept the Bavarians engaged on the other flank, Marl- 
borough threw his whole weight on the centre. He 
broke through, and turning half round, wrapped his 
army around the village of Blenheim. Not a French- 
man in the village escaped; they were all killed or 
captured. On the morning of that day the French 
and Bavarian generals had commanded an army of 
some sixty thousand men. At night but twenty thou- 
sand remained. The road from Ulm to Ratisbon runs 
through a part of this battlefield, and the pathway is 
said to be founded on the bones of men and horses who 
perished there. In fact, to this very day the skulls of 
men are sometimes turned up by the plough. 

" ' 'T is some poor fellow's skull,' quoth he, 
' Who fell in the great victory.' " 

The victory of Blenheim placed England at the head 
of Teutonic Europe. To Marlborough it brought the 
thanks of Parliament and a magnificent estate. 

Marlborough gained many other victories, but none 

so important as this. Nor was he the only English 

commander to gain victories, for Admiral Rooke, 

Seizure ....... 

of having with him a small land force under the 

'command of a German prince, captured Gibral- 
tar, the key to the Mediterranean Sea. The English 
held it through the war, retained it at the peace, and 
it is still in English hands, and is claimed to be the 
strongest fortress in the world. The Treaty of Utrecht 
ended this long war. The French prince kept his 
Spanish throne, but France had been greatly weakened 
by the struggle. The twenty-five years of peace which 
followed brought her little strength, though giving 
England time to grow, and to become the leading 



1707.] UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 227 

power in Europe. In America this war was usually 
called Queen Anne's War, and during its continuance 
Acadia was taken from the French. At the Peace of 
Utrecht it was retained by England, and this was the 
first step in the breaking up of the French empire in 
America. 

One of the principal reasons for the prominence 
which England now gained was the union with Scot- 
land. Ever since James VI. of Scotland be- 
came James I. of England, the two countries w i"h° n 
had been ruled by one sovereign. But, except f^^ 
for a short time during the ascendency of the 
Puritans, a Scottish Parliament, sitting at Edinburgh, 
had made laws for Scotland ; a Scot had been regarded 
in England as a foreigner; and Scottish goods could 
be brought into England only on terms which made 
their profitable sale impossible. Of course the evils 
of such a state of things were apparent to every one. 
But so jealous were all parties of their rights that it 
was not until 1707 that the union of the two kingdoms 
was brought about. After that date, laws for the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain were made by a Par- 
liament sitting at Westminster. The Scots sent one^. 
twelfth of the new House of Commons, and in the 
House of Lords there were sixteen Scottish peers, 
chosen by all the Scottish peers. Besides these, how- 
ever, many Scots sat in the House of Lords, because 
they possessed English titles of nobility, so that the dis- 
proportion was not so great as it at first sight appears. 
For purposes of trade and taxation the two kingdoms 
were placed on an equality. Many people thought 
that the less numerous Scots would be lost to sight 
among their more numerous neighbors. Such has not 



228 



THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1707. 



been the case. By patience and energy the Scots have 
made Glasgow on the Clyde the rival of Liverpool on 
the Mersey. In colonial enterprises the two races have 
stood side by side, while in the government service, 
in the army, the navy, and even in the Church, the 
Scots have taken a leading part. And this, though the 
Presbyterian Church was recognized as the Established 
Church of Scotland. The old English flag had been 
the red cross of St. George on a white ground. The 
white " saltire " of St. Andrew, or cross, in the shape 
of an X, on a blue ground, was now combined with this, 
and the "union" flag became the symbol of the union 
between the two countries. 




ROYAL ARMS BORNE BY JAMES I. AND SUCCEEDING STUART 
SOVEREIGNS. 



i7oi.] ACT OF SUCCESSION, OR SETTLEMENT. 229 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

GEORGE I. 
1714-1727. 

QUEEN ANNE was the last of the Stuart mon- 
archs. She died in 17 14, leaving no children. 
As long ago as 1701 an Act had been passed regu- 
lating the succession to the crown in such a way 
that none but a Protestant should ever become Succes- 
king or queen of England. The Protestant hav- settle^ 
ing the best right to the crown after Anne was JJ™** 
the Electress Sophia of Hanover, that small 
country being governed by an elector; and on her and 
her descendants, provided they were Protestants, the 
crown was settled. A few things which had been 
omitted from the Bill of Rights were inserted in this 
new agreement between Parliament and the future 
kings and queens of England, especially one clause 
requiring the judges to be appointed to hold office 
during good behavior, and not merely during the king's 
pleasure. Electress Sophia died a few weeks before 
Queen Anne. So upon the latter' s death, Sophia's 
son, Elector George of Hanover, became King George 
the First of England. 1 

There were many persons in England, and even in 
the government itself, who would have preferred a 
Stuart king. But just before Queen Anne's death, 

1 For genealogy, see p. 242. 



230 GEORGE I. [1715 

some noblemen favorable to the Hanoverian cause, 

suspecting the ministers of conspiring with the 

Stuarts, seized the government. That their 

Jacobite . .' & . 

plot suspicions were correct is shown by the tact 
[ ' that Lord Bolingbroke, who had been the lead- 
ing minister, soon after ran away to France, and openly 
joined the Pretender, James Stuart. Then the elec- 
tions to the new Parliament were scenes of such 

Riot 

Act great disorder that the Riot Act had to be passed. 
15 ' When, a year later, it came to be time to elect 
a new Parliament, there was still so much opposi- 
tion to the Hanoverian Succession that an Act was 
passed extending the duration of Parliament for seven 
years, unless sooner dissolved by the king. This was 
called the Septennial Act, and is still in force. 

Septen- l 

niai Act No Parliament can sit for more than seven years, 
(1716). . . . n . 1 

in any case, without a new election; and new 

elections may be held much oftener than this, as, for 
instance, when the ministry is defeated in any impor- 
tant vote, or when a Prime Minister thinks it a favor- 
able time for his party. When a ministry is finally 
defeated, the sovereign sends for some leading mem- 
ber or members of the successful party, and they agree 
upon a new list of ministers. 

The next few years were marked by a desire among 
the people to grow rapidly rich. A great scheme for 
trade to South America and the islands of the Pacific 
South was set on foot. The company which under- 
Bubbie to °k t0 carry on this trade was called the South 
(1720). g ea Company, from the old name of the Pacific 
Ocean. It soon made some very corrupt bargains with 
the English Government, and thus attracted much atten- 
tion. Its shares rose from one hundred pounds apiece 



1720.] 



SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 



231 




GEORGE I.: FROM AN ENGRAVING BY VERTUE. 



to one thousand pounds apiece; and there were not so 
many shares as people wished to buy at any price. 
New companies were quickly started: one to "trade 



232 GEORGE I. [1721. 

in human hair, " for instance, another "to insure against 
losses from dishonest servants," and still another for 
the "making of iron with pit coal." Pit coal, or coal, 
as we call it, was then regarded as unfit for smelting 
iron, which was done with charcoal. A few years 
later a method of smelting iron with coal was intro- 
duced, and this industry is to-day the basis of Eng- 
land's prosperity. Alarmed at the sudden rise of 
these companies, the South Sea Company procured 
their downfall. When the distrust of the people had 
been aroused in this way it was directed against the 
South Sea Company as well as against its rivals. The 
Government interfered, and the South Sea Company 
was saved. During this fit of speculation thousands 
had lost all their property, and there was much 
discontent and misery throughout England. The 
Jacobites thought the time had come to overthrow the 
Hanoverian monarchy. But again their scheme fell 
through. The leaders were executed, while others, 
like Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, were exiled. 

The bursting of the South Sea Bubble brought Sir 
Robert Walpole, a skilful financier, to the head of 
Sir affairs. He became First Lord of the Treasury, 

waTaie an< ^ ^ rom that d a Y to this it has been usual for 
Prime that official to be prime minister, or premier. 

Minister r r 

(1721- All the members of the Government, too, began 
now to act together under the leadership of 
the premier, the principal ministers forming a select 
council, or cabinet. 

Sir Robert Walpole saw that what England now 
needed was a period of repose, during which the Hano- 
verian kings might become firmly seated on the throne, 
and be associated in people's minds with prosperity 



[727 



WALPOLES POLICY. 



233 



and quiet. He resolved to let well enough alone, and 

never to do anything which might arouse opposition. 

In this he was successful. He also bought, by gifts 

of money or easy places under the Government, 

the votes of a majority of the members of the pole's 

House of Commons, and in this way secured his 

own power, and kept the two Houses of Parliament from 




GROUP SHOWING COSTUMES AND SEDAN CHAIR, ABOUT I72O : 
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY KIP. 



quarrelling. In 1727 George I. died, and his son, 
George II., succeeded to the throne as quietly as any 
son ever succeeded his father. The first George had 
been a dull and heavy man, who spoke English very 
imperfectly, because of his German birth, and had won 
very little affection or admiration from his people. 



234 GEORGE II. [1737 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

GEORGE II. 
1 727-1 760. 

IT seemed at first as if Walpole would be turned out 
of office; but he soon discovered that the new 
king was governed by his wife, Queen Caroline. So 
he promised her that if he should remain Prime Min- 
ister, she should have a larger allowance than 
Caroline an y qu^ 11 na -d before received. This pleased 
Queen Caroline, who also saw that Walpole was 
the ablest and safest man then in public life. She 
threw her influence on his side, and while she lived he 
was secure in his place. 

It was during this reign that the brothers Wesley 
began a great revival in the English Church. As they 
laid much stress on their peculiar methods, they 
Metho- were in derision called Methodists. But the 
Methodists grew and prospered, and now are a 
strong and influential body, not merely in England, 
but in our own country as well. 

In 1737 Queen Caroline died, and the mainstay of 
Walpole's power was removed. His peace policy, too, 
was becoming distasteful to Englishmen, who 
Spain thought he yielded too much to foreigners. At 
last an English seaman named Jenkins ap- 
peared in London with one of his ears carefully pre- 
served in a box. This, he declared, had been cut off 



739-J 



WAR WITH SPAIN. 



235 




SIR ROBERT WALPOLE : FROM THE PICTURE BY VAN LOO 
IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 



by a brutal Spanish sailor. When asked what his 
feelings were at the time of the ear-cutting, he replied : 
" I commended my soul to God, my cause to my coun- 
try. " This story aroused great ill-will among the 



236 GEORGE II. [i745- 

people, and the king, too, was eager for war. He was 
still Elector of Hanover, and, being a German by birth 
and breeding, he cared much more for the interests of 
Hanover than for those of England. So in 1739 Wal- 
pole was compelled, quite contrary to his own judg- 
ment, to declare war against Spain. In the next 
with year King Frederick II. — called Frederick the 

Prussia 

and Great — of Prussia seized some valuable terri- 
tory belonging to Austria, and the war became 
general, England and Austria fighting on one side, 
against Spain, France, and Prussia on the other. 

In 1742 Sir Robert Walpole was forced from office, 

and before long Henry Pelham became prime minister, 

with his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, as his 

Pelham :',,', , . , 

Ministry right-hand man. The war was now carried on 
1754)" with more vigor. The English took part in two 

noted battles, Dettingen and Fontenoy. The 
former is especially memorable as the last battle in 
which an English king took a personal share, and the 
latter as one in which Irish troops fought against 
England. 

The war is important in English history, however, 
as giving occasion for the last attempt of the Stuarts 

to regain their lost throne by force. The 

Stuart ° J 

French Government gave all the assistance it 
could, and many Scots rallied around Prince 
Charles Edward, the son of the Old Pretender, or 
James III., as the Jacobites called him. " Prince Char- 
lie " beat the English at Preston Pans, near Edinburgh, 
and then, advancing south, marched almost unopposed 
to Derby, in the heart of England. In London all was 
confusion. The king made preparations to escape by 
sea, and Newcastle even thought of going over to the 



rising 
(1745) 



1 745-] 



GEORGE II. 



237 




GEORGE II. : FROM THE PORTRAIT BY THOMAS HUDSON 
IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 



238 GEORGE II. [1746. 

side of the prince. But almost no one in England 
actually joined the prince, and without a fight he 
turned back, and retreated to Scotland. The Duke of 
Cumberland, brother to the king, now took command 
of the English forces, and pursuing the Scots to the 
northern end of Scotland, defeated them in 

fi U 7 46). en the battle of Culloden. The slaughter did not 
cease with the battle, and earned for Cumber- 
land the nickname of the "Butcher." After many 
romantic adventures, Prince Charles escaped. This 
was largely due to the bravery of Flora Macdonald, 
who later emigrated to the Carolinas. The Highland 
clan system was now broken up, and the warlike power 
of the chiefs destroyed. The war also led to a lasting 
change in the social condition of Scotland. Before 
this, the humblest Highland clansman had claimed 
a right in the soil ; but he was now treated, under 
the English laws, as a mere tenant-at-will, and the 
Dukes of Athol, Sutherland, and Argyle entered, one 
after another, upon a series of "clearances," as they 
were called, expelling thousands of families to make 
room for grouse, sheep, and deer. The Scots never 
rebelled again, and in the next war they were found 
serving in the English army against the French. 
Before dismissing the Stuarts from our minds, let us 
recall for a moment how much they suffered and lost, 
merely because of their religion. If we cannot sym- 
pathize with their despotic theories of government, we 
may perhaps honor them for their fidelity to their 
religious convictions. 

This insurrection, "the Forty-five," as it was after- 
wards called, is vividly described in Scott's novel of 
"Waverley. " During this war, the militia of Massa- 



1748] PITT AND FOX. 239 

chusetts and some of the other English North Ameri- 
can colonies, with the assistance of an English fleet, 
had surprised and captured the French stronghold of 
Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island. This, with all 
other conquests, was given back by England at the 
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. 

The year 1752 is memorable as being the first year 
in which English folk used the modern mode of reckon- 
ing time. The old calendar had been adopted in the 
days of Julius Caesar, when people thought the year was 
shorter than it really is. In 1582 Pope Gregory New 
had instituted a new calendar; but the English st y le - 
at that time hated the Pope so thoroughly that they 
would have nothing to do with it. It was adopted, 
however, by the Catholic countries of western Europe. 
In 1 75 1 the difference in time between England and 
her neighbors was eleven days. The English year, 
too, began on the 25th of March, instead of on the 1st 
of January, and altogether it was very inconvenient. 
So in 1 75 1 Parliament passed an Act providing that 
the year 1752 should begin on January 1st, and the day 
after September 2d should be called, not September 3d, 
but September 14th. In this way England caught up 
with her neighbors. But many people thought the 
Government had stolen the eleven days, and cried in 
public places, " Give us back our eleven days ! " 

During these years two young men — William Pitt 
and Henry Fox — pushed themselves to the front, 
and were taken into the Government, Fox as P i ttand 
Secretary of War, and Pitt as Paymaster of Fox - 
the Forces. Former paymasters had used the money 
in their hands as their own, till it was actually 
needed. Pitt now refused to do this. He turned into 



240 GEORGE II. [1756. 

the treasury the interest earned by the money, and 
thus won the confidence of the people. In 1754 Pel- 
ham died, and his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, 
became prime minister. 

The Treaty of 1748 had really settled nothing. In 
America especially, the boundaries between English 
and French soil were vague and uncertain. France 
conceived the project of connecting her possessions 
in Canada and Louisiana by a line of posts extending 
down the Ohio River. If this were successfully done, 
Causes tne English colonies would be confined to the 
of the narrow strip of land between the Alleghanies 

French *■ ° 

and and the Atlantic Ocean. Governor Dinwiddie 
war in of Virginia sent George Washington with a 
a * letter to the commander of one of the French 
posts, protesting against the whole scheme. No at- 
tention being paid to this, Washington led an expe- 
dition to seize Fort Du Quesne, which was erected 
at the junction of the two principal branches of the 
Ohio, near where Pittsburgh now stands. This ex- 
pedition ended in disaster. The English Govern- 
ment then sent over regular troops under General 
Braddock to seize the place. But Braddock was killed 
before he came within sight of the fort, and his expedi- 
tion, too, was totally wrecked. 

By this time (1756) war had broken out all over 
western Europe. France took the part of Austria, 
„,, and thus England was forced into an alliance 

The ° 

Seven with Frederick the Great of Prussia. The 
War in war soon spread over the Christian world, 
urope * and at first everything went against England. 
Newcastle tried to govern without Pitt, and failed. 
Then Pitt tried to carry on the government without 



1756.] 



WILLIAM PITT. 



241 




THE RT. HON. WILLIAM PITT, PAYMASTER OF THE FORCES, AFTER- 
WARDS EARL OF CHATHAM : FROM A PAINTING BY HOARE. 



Newcastle, and he in turn failed. The two then agreed 

to share the government between them, Newcastle to 

manage home affairs, and to secure by bribery, in which 

he was expert, a majority in the House of Commons, 

while Pitt should manage the war, and gain as many 

victories as he could. 

16 



242 GEORGE II. [1756. 

William Pitt was probably the ablest war minister 
England ever had. He took the whole control of the 
army and navy into his own hands. For instance, 
the orders for the sailing of fleets were sent by Pitt 
William to the Admiralty (or navy department), and the 
PltL Lords of the Admiralty were compelled to sign 
them, without even knowing what they were. Once, 
it is said, Pitt told the Lords of the Admiralty to 
have a fleet ready to set sail the following Friday. 
The Lords said it was impossible. Pitt declared that 
if the fleet did not sail at the designated time, there 
would be a new set of Lords of the Admiralty. The 
fleet sailed at the appointed time, and a few days later 
won a glorious victory. Pitt especially sought for 



THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. 
James /., King of England. 

Elizabeth m. Frederick, Elector Palatine. 
I 
Sophia m. Elector of Hanover. 



George I.. 

1 
George II. 

1 


Ki 


ng 


of England. 


Frederick, Prince of Wales. 

George III. 
1 






Duke of Cumberland. 


1 1 
■ge IV. William IV. 






"~1 

Duke of Kent. 

I 

Victoria. 
1 


1 

Albert Edward, Prince 

of Wales. 

1 






1 
Duke of Edinburgh, 


1 

Albert Victor Edward. 

I-1892. 






George Frederick. 



1760.] 



DEATH OF GEORGE II. 



243 



energetic, skilful young men, and promoted them over 
the heads of old and less efficient men, whose only 
recommendation was the influence their families pos- 
sessed in Parliament. The result of this energetic 
administration was the expulsion of the French from 
the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Ohio rivers in 
America, and from one of the finest portions of India. 
Quebec and Plassey, associated with the names of 
Wolfe and Clive, were the two great victories won by 
the English in this war. They are still reckoned 
among the decisive conflicts in the world's history. 

On the Continent, too, Frederick the Great, with 
the aid of English money, won campaign after cam- 
paign, and, though often sorely pressed, kept the 
French busy at home. Hence it is often said: "Eng- 
land conquered America in Germany." But before 
peace was made, George II. was dead, and Pitt and 
Newcastle were no longer in the Government. 




COACH IN USE ABOUT 17OO. 



244 GEORGE III. [1760. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

GEORGE III. 

1 760-1 778. 
Part I. 1 760-1820. 

THE new king was quite unlike his Hanoverian 
predecessors. They were Germans, while he 
was born an Englishman. They were content to have 
England governed by constitutional ministers, as long 

as everything went well, and their pleasures 
tero? the were not restricted. But George the Third had 
reien been brought up by his mother with very high 

notions of the rights of an English king. She 
was always saying to him, " George, be king ! " and he 
set to work to "be king" in earnest. This was now 
easier than it would have been in the earlier part of 
the century, for long years of power had split the 
Whig party into cliques, and it was no longer able to 
resist royal encroachment. In 1761 Pitt wished to 
declare war against Spain, which was plainly preparing 
to attack England. He was overruled by the influ- 
ence of the king, and resigned. Soon after other 
changes were made, and Newcastle, in disgust, retired. 
These things were done by the advice of Lord Bute, 
the Scottish favorite of the king, who became Prime 
Minister. 

The war with Spain followed, as Pitt had foretold. 
But the enthusiasm he had aroused remained, and 
Havana was captured from the Spaniards. In 1763 



1763-] 



PEACE OF PARIS. 



245 



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GEORGE III. IN I767 : FROM A PAINTING BY ALLAN RAMSAY 
IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 

peace was made, England retaining nearly all her con- 
quests, and exchanging Havana for the Floridas. 



In this way all of North America east of the 
Mississippi River, with the exception of New 



Peace of 

Paris 

(1763)- 



246 GEORGE III. [1763. 

Orleans, came into England's hands. In India was 
laid the foundation of her present splendid empire. 

Nevertheless, many Englishmen thought Lord Bute 
had obtained less than England's due at the end of a 
long and successful war. The treaty was fiercely at- 
tacked in the House of Commons. Bute employed 
Henry Fox to buy enough votes to carry the treaty 
through. For his success in this dishonorable effort, 
he was raised to the peerage as Lord Holland, but he 
never recovered the esteem of men. Lord Bute now 
suddenly resigned, and Pitt's brother-in-law, George 
Grenville, became the real head of the Government. 
Bute's turning Pitt out of office, and then bringing the 
war to such a tame conclusion, made him very unpop- 
ular. He was attacked from all sides, and pamphlet 
after pamphlet was written against him. 

Perhaps the boldest attack was made by John Wilkes, 
in a paper called, in direct allusion to Bute's Scottish 
John birth, "The North Briton." This John Wilkes 
wnices. was a mos t extraordinary man. His character 
was as bad as it could be, and his personal appearance 
was so singular that one would have supposed he would 
have had no influence at all. But his conversation 
was so brilliant that in five minutes one forgot his evil 
looks, and his talents were so great that Benjamin 
Franklin once said : " Had Wilkes had a good charac- 
ter, and George the Third a bad one, the former would 
have turned the latter out of his kingdom." As it 
was, Wilkes gave the king and his ministers a good 
deal of trouble. The Government decided to punish 
him for writing the articles in "The North Briton." 
To make an arrest sure, a general warrant was issued 
to arrest the authors of the paper, not specifying any 



17&3- 



JOHN WILKES. 



247 



one of the authors by name. Wilkes was arrested, but 
Charles Pratt, Chief Justice of the Court of Common 




A SITTING IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN I741-42 •* FROM AN ENGRAVING BY PINE. 



Pleas, who later became Lord Chancellor Camden, 
ordered his release, on the ground that as a member of 



248 GEORGE III. [1763. 

the House of Commons he was free from arrest ex- 
cept for certain things, of which writing newspaper 
attacks was not one. A little later, general warrants 
were also declared to be illegal. The majority of the 
House of Commons, however, was on the side of the 
Government, and by vote expelled Wilkes from his 
seat. Soon after he was wounded in a duel, and com- 
pelled to flee to France, and then was declared to be 
an outlaw. But "Wilkes and Liberty" became a 
popular cry, and before long the Government had more 
trouble with Wilkes himself. 

The ministry now became involved in another quar- 
rel, one result of which was the independence of the 
The United States. The English colonies had been 
American planted in the seventeenth century, either as 
colonies. commerc i a i ventures or as places of refuge for 
particular religious beliefs. During their early years 
of weakness and poverty they had received little help 
or encouragement from the mother land. But as they 
grew in riches, and their trade became profitable, Par- 
liament passed law after law to turn their trade and 
commerce to the advantage of England. Many of 
these laws were so severe they could not be enforced. 
This was especially true of the tax on sugar and 
molasses imported from the Spanish and French West 
Indies, which tax was so high as to prevent the profit- 
able importation of such articles from those islands; 
that is, if the tax were paid. The only result was to 
encourage smuggling, which became a regular busi- 
ness in some colonies. George Grenville was an able 
lawyer, a hard-headed, narrow-minded man. To him 
smuggling was smuggling, whether on the coast of 
Old England or of New England. He lowered the 



1765.] THE REGENCY QUESTION. 249 

duty on sugar, and then ordered the English naval 
officers to carry out the law to the letter. This was 
done, but the harshness of the naval officers aroused 
much irritation. 

Grenville also decided that a force of regular Eng- 
lish troops must be maintained in the colonies to keep 
the Indians in order. He thought it only right The 
the colonists should pay a part of the expense of AcT^ 
maintaining them. This he told the colonial 07 6 5)- 
agents in London, and gave them a year in which to 
propose some method of raising the required sum. As 
they proposed none, he carried a bill through Parlia- 
ment, laying a stamp duty on legal documents and 
newspapers in America. The Act was most ill-timed. 
The colonists refused to obey it. Newspapers were 
printed without a stamp, and, after a time, the courts 
went on without stamped documents, as if no law had 
ever been passed. 

As if these quarrels with Wilkes and the American 
colonists were not enough, Grenville now quarrelled 
with the king. George the Third's mind had 

b ° The 

never been very strong, and in 1765 he became Regency 
for a time incapable of ruling. It seemed s 
necessary to provide some one to take his place in case 
of future attacks. So Grenville drew up a bill to pro- 
vide for the appointment of a Council of Regency. 
The king's mother was very unpopular, and it was 
thought best to omit her name altogether from the 
list of persons to be appointed, for if it were put in, 
the Commons would surely strike it out. The king 
consented to omit it. But when the bill came to 
the Commons they insisted upon its insertion. The 
king was furious. He dismissed Grenville on the first 



250 GEORGE III. [1766. 

opportunity, and another Whig faction came into office 
under the lead of the Marquis of Rockingham, whose 
private secretary was an Irishman named Edmund 
Burke. 

The Rockingham ministry was really disliked by the 
king, and had but a narrow majority in the Commons, 
stamp so it accomplished very little. The Stamp Act 
repealed was indeed repealed, but the repeal was accom- 
(1766). p an ied by a Declaratory Act, declaring the 
right of Parliament to legislate for the colonies "in 
all cases whatsoever." The colonists, however, were 
so overjoyed at the repeal of the Stamp Act that they 
paid no attention to this other Act. The king then 
turned out the Whigs, and prevailed on William Pitt, 
now raised to the peerage as Earl of Chatham, to be 
the head of a new ministry. As he was getting feeble, 
the Duke of Grafton became nominal Prime Minister. 
Charles Pratt was in the new government as Lord 
Chancellor Camden, and Lord Shelburne, a friend of 
the colonists, was Colonial Secretary. Charles Towns- 
hend was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord North 
held a subordinate office. In fact so many different ele- 
ments were represented in this ministry that Edmund 
Burke laughingly called it a "Mosaic Ministry." Be- 
fore the Government was fairly started, Lord Chatham 
became seriously ill, and retired to the country. In 
his absence, and in accordance with the Declaratory 
Act, Townshend passed a bill through Parliament lay- 
ing duties on glass, paper, tea, and painters' colors 
imported into the colonies. Townshend did this 
merely to fulfil an idle boast, and almost immediately 
died. His place was taken by Lord North. Unable 
to prevent such measures, Shelburne resigned, and 



1768.] WILKES AGAIN. 25 I 

Chatham, as soon as he recovered sufficiently to realize 
what was going on, also resigned. In 1770 Camden 
and Grafton followed, and Lord North became Prime 
Minister. 

The king had now accomplished his object. By 
sinecure offices, bribes, and other corrupt means he 
had gathered about him a party, known as 
"The King's Friends," devoted to his inter- King's 
ests. This party now supported Lord North, 
and from 1770 to 1782 King George III. governed very 
despotically, as no king had governed since the days 
of James II., and as none has governed since. Once 
in a while Lord North objected to the royal policy, 
and threatened to resign. But the king appealed to 
his personal loyalty, and Lord North, to his discredit, 
remained in office. Though including such men as 
Chatham and Camden in the Lords, and Burke and 
Charles James Fox in the Commons, the Opposition 
was able to accomplish nothing against Lord North 
and the King's Friends. One man there was who 
seemed singly a match forking and Parliament com- 
bined, and this man was John Wilkes. 

In 1768 Wilkes had returned from France, and been 
elected to Parliament as one of the members for the 
County of Middlesex. The House of Commons Wilkes 
declared him incapable of sitting in that House, a & ain - 
and ordered a new election. Wilkes was again re- 
turned; and this was again repeated till the House 
ordered the man having the next largest number of 
votes to be considered the elected member. Up to 
this time the debates which took place in Parliament 
were not reported and published, because the two 
Houses would not permit it. Sometimes the speeches 



252 GEORGE III. [1770. 

of members were printed as speeches delivered in "the 
Senate of Great Lilliput," or some such place, and 
the names of the speakers were never given in full. 
In 1770, however, some of the debates were published 
without any such attempt at concealment. The Com- 
mons decided to punish the printers, and sent their 
officers into the city of London to arrest the culprits. 
But the officers were themselves arrested and taken 
before the Lord Mayor, Brass Crosby by name, and 
Aldermen Wilkes and Oliver. These magistrates 
decided that the officers of the Commons could arrest 
no one within the limits of the city without the con- 
sent of a city magistrate. Then the Commons or- 
dered Crosby and Oliver to appear in their places, for 
they were members of the House, and to justify their 
conduct. They also ordered Wilkes to appear at the 
bar of the House and defend himself. Crosby and 
Oliver did as they were ordered, and were sent to 
prison. But Wilkes refused to appear except in his 
place as member for Middlesex, and the House of 
Commons was afraid of another struggle with him, for 
the London mob took his side. It ordered him to 
present himself on a certain day, and then adjourned 
over that day, so that he could not appear. This was 
the end of the contest, and ever since, the debates in 
the Houses of Parliament have been published. The 
Opposition had sided with Wilkes. As time went on 
they took the part of the American colonists, and in 
this way the maintenance of the king's policy in Eng- 
land and America came to be regarded as a single 
question. This, of course, made reconciliation with 
America even more difficult than before. 

The Townshend duties gave rise to so much irrita- 



I773-] THE BOSTON TEA PARTY. 253 

tion in the colonies that in 1770 they were repealed, 
with the exception of the tax on tea, which was re- 
tained at the command of the king. It chanced Tea sent 
at this time that the English East India Com- t0 , the . 

colonies. 

pany was in great need of funds. The Govern- 
ment loaned it money, and, in return, secured a voice 
in its affairs. To still further help it out of its diffi- 
culties, the Government gave it the privilege of export- 
ing tea from its London warehouses to the colonies 
free of duty, except the tax which was to be collected 
in America, in accordance with the Townshend duties. 

As there was a heavy tax on all tea sold in England, 
this arrangement would have enabled the Company to 
sell it to the colonists cheaper than to the peo- Th 
pie of England. In fact, this was one reason Boston 
why the Government entered into the arrange- Party 
ment, as it was hoped that the Company would ' 

sell its tea so cheap that the Americans would stop 
buying smuggled tea from the Dutch traders. The 
colonists, on the other hand, regarded its very cheap- 
ness with suspicion, and felt that the Government was 
in effect bribing them to submit to taxation. They 
everywhere refused to buy the tea. In some colonies 
the ships were turned back, in others the tea was 
stored in damp cellars, where it soon spoiled. In 
Massachusetts, when Governor Hutchinson refused to 
allow the ships to sail before their cargoes were landed, 
the people threw the tea into the harbor, and then re- 
fused to pay the Company for what they had destroyed. 

The English Government decided to make an exam- 
ple of the people of Boston and Massachusetts. Laws 
were passed through Parliament closing the port of 
Boston to commerce, and suspending the charter of 



254 GEORGE III. [1775. 

the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Another Act, 
passed in the same year, extended the boundaries of 
The the Province of Quebec to the Ohio River, and 
p° S t°A g rant ed many privileges to the French Catho- 
and lies living in Canada. By selecting Massachu- 
oppres- setts for punishment the Government no doubt 
measures expected to separate her from the other colo- 
(1774)- n ies, and in this way to deal with one colony at 
a time. The colonists, however, acted in an entirely 
unexpected manner, for they made the cause of Massa- 
chusetts their own. This view was entirely just, for if 
Parliament could deal thus arbitrarily with one colony, 
it could with all. A Continental Congress, or meeting 
of delegates from all of the original English colonies 
on the continent, met at Philadelphia. It drew up a 
declaration of the rights of the colonists, and set on 
foot an association to prevent the importation and 
consumption of English goods. 

In 1774 a general election was held in England, and 
the voters showed their sympathy for the Government 

by returning a large majority to help the Gov- 
torTand" ernment oppress the colonies. In fact, for the 
?jT 7 c ^) d next s i x years, from 1774 to 1780, there was 

hardly an Opposition in Parliament. During 
the winter of 1774-1775, however, the colonists were 
active in preparing for defence. In the spring of 1775 
occurred the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, 
and the battle at Bunker's Hill (or Breed's Hill). All 
resulted practically in favor of the colonists, though 
they were obliged to retire from their works on Breed's 
Hill. Then followed the siege of Boston by the colo- 
nists, who were commanded by General Washington. 
In March, 1776, the British were forced to evacuate 



1776.] THE SURPRISE AT TRENTON. 255 

Boston, and the scene of warlike operations was trans- 
ferred to New York. 

Meantime, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold and 
their companies seized Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 
with their storehouses full of arms and ammunition; 
but later Montgomery and Arnold failed to capture 
Quebec, and the English General Clinton, with Admi- 
ral Hyde Parker, were in their turn frustrated in an 
attempt on Charleston, S. C. 

In July, 1776, Congress issued a Declaration of 
Independence, and Articles of Confederation be- 
tween the colonies were drawn up. Owing to various 
causes, however, they did not go into effect until five 
years later, in 1781. In July, 1776, came proposals 
for reconciliation from the English Government, but 
the terms offered could not then be entertained, and 
nothing came of the attempt. Washington and Howe 
once more confronted each other, this time in New 
York; but the British were now much the stronger 
party, and the Americans were driven from New York 
city and White Plains, across the Hudson, through the 
Jerseys, to the southern side of the Delaware River. 
With ill-timed caution General Howe, instead of fol- 
lowing Washington across the Delaware and fighting 
him wherever found, stopped short and went into win- 
ter quarters, his line extending across to the Jerseys 
from Elizabeth to Trenton. 

In December, 1776 affairs looked desperate for the 
Americans; but on Christmas night Washington re- 
crossed the Delaware, surprising and capturing The 
the British outpost at Trenton. Before long surprise 
the British were obliged to concentrate within Trenton 
a short distance of New York. 



256 GEORGE III. [1777. 

For the year 1777 a most elaborate plan was drawn 
up. The main army, under Howe, was to seize Phila- 
delphia, while Clinton should protect New York city 
and capture all of the American forts he could on 
Hudson River. A third army, under Burgoyne, would 
march south from Canada and join Clinton. If this 
plan was successfully carried out, New England would 
be cut off from the other colonies, to be subdued at 
leisure. Burgoyne' s march was disastrous to him. A 
detachment under St. Leger was turned back by the gar- 
rison of Fort Stanwix and by the militia of the Mohawk 
Valley under General Herkimer. Another detachment 
was defeated by the New Englanders, led by Starke, at 

Bennington, while Burgoyne was himself sur- 
fo^ne's rounded and captured, with his army, at Saratoga, 
surrender j^g American commander was General Horatio 

Gates; but to Philip Schuyler and Benedict 
Arnold historians give most credit for this achieve- 
ment. Clinton, on his end of the line, accomplished 
little. 

General Howe had better fortune. Placing his 
troops on transports, he carried them by water to the 
head of Chesapeake Bay, and approached Philadelphia 
from the south. Washington met him at Brandywine 
Creek, and was compelled to retire. Howe then oc- 
cupied Philadelphia, and maintained himself there, 
although a portion of his army was surprised by Wash- 
ington at Germantown. The Americans then retired 
to Valley Forge, a strong position on the Schuylkill. 
There they suffered terrible privations. But there they 
were drilled by Steuben and his under-officers till in 
efficiency the "continental line " became superior to its 
opponents. 



1778] THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. 257 

The principal result, however, of the campaign of 
l 777 was the alliance between France and the Ameri- 
cans. The present time seemed to the French a good 
opportunity to deal a great blow at England's 
fast-growing colonial empire, and in this way to French 
avenge the humiliations of the Peace of 1763. alliance 
At first it seemed so doubtful whether the colo- 
nists could keep up their resistance that France was 
afraid openly to take their side. But the surprise at 
Trenton and the capture of Burgoyne put a wholly 
new face on the war. 

The French alliance caused great excitement in 
England. Chatham proposed to withdraw the troops 
from the colonies, win back the affections of the colo- 
nists, and oppose a united front to the power of France. 
Chatham was the only man who could have carried out 
this scheme. But the king refused to appoint him 
prime minister, though quite willing to consent to 
his taking office under Lord North, which of course 
Chatham could not do. Lord North, on his part, 
brought forward a plan for reconciliation, by which all 
the demands of the colonists, except independence, 
were to be granted. But this, like the former plans, 
came just too late. Chatham did not live to see the 
defeat of the English by the French and their Ameri- 
can allies. While making a speech to arouse the 
spirits of the peers, he overtaxed his strength, and a 
few days later died. He was given a national funeral 
and a monument in Westminster Abbey. 

The principal event in the campaign of 1778 was 
the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British. Mon 
While marching across the Jerseys to New mouth 
York, their rear was attacked by the Americans 

17 



258 GEORGE III. [1779. 

at Monmouth. Owing, however, to the treasonable 
conduct of General Charles Lee, the attempt was a 
failure. 

In 1779 neither side attempted much in America. 
In England, however, the struggle was hot and fierce. 
General Burgoyne and General Howe were members 
of the House of Commons, and they endeavored to lay 
all the blame for their non-success on the shoulders of 
the ministry. In this attack they were assisted by 
Admiral Keppel, who, with a large fleet, had done 
absolutely nothing. Spain now joined France against 
England, and the Irish also bestirred themselves and 
demanded better treatment. In the face of all these 
difficulties Lord North wished to resign; but the king 
prevailed on him to remain in office for a while longer. 
The Opposition now adopted a new party cry. For 
years the Whig ministers — Sir Robert Walpole and 
the Pelhams — had maintained their power by bribery 
and corruption, and the Whigs had then seen nothing 
wrong in the system. Now, however, the king was 
using the same means to keep an obedient ministry in 
office, and to keep his opponents out. All the evils of 
government by corruption became at once apparent to 
the Whigs. They put themselves forward as the advo- 
cates of a more economical administration. They also 
advocated keeping government contractors out of the 
House of Commons. 

In 1778 some of the laws against the English Roman 

rd Catholics had been modified or repealed. This 

George was disagreeable to many Englishmen, and in 

Gordon 



Riots 1780, at the head of a mob of sixty thousand 
persons, Lord George Gordon carried to Parlia- 
ment a petition against the Catholics. The next few 



1780.] THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS. 259 

days London was at the mercy of the rioters. Houses 
were destroyed, shops broken open and plundered. 
At length the king took the matter into his own 
hands, and the mob was dispersed. Dickens's novel, 
"Barnaby Rudge," gives a vivid picture of all this 
excitement. 

In 1779 Savannah and Georgia were taken by the 
British, and in 1780 Sir Henry Clinton again came 
south, and in May captured Charleston. He, The 
however, returned soon after to New York, cam- 1 ™ 
to watch the movements of a French fleet P ai s ns - 
which reached Newport in the summer of 1780. Corn- 
wallis, Clinton's successor in the South, defeated 
General Gates in the battle near Camden, and to all 
appearances put an end to resistance in the Southern 
colonies. But not long after, a force of hardy pioneers 
from beyond the mountains captured an important de- 
tachment at King's Mountain, and in December, 1780, 
General Nathanael Greene came south and took charge 
of the resistance. The British, in January, 1781, 
under Cornwallis's lieutenant, Colonel Tarleton, were 
defeated at the Cowpens, and in a few weeks, after 
much manoeuvring, the two main armies came together 
at Guilford Court-House. At the end of the contest 
Cornwallis retained the field of battle, but his losses 
had been so great in men and stores that he was com- 
pelled to retire to Wilmington. Thus Greene had won 
the campaign. The interior of North Carolina was 
clear of the enemy, and he marched to South Carolina. 
By the autumn of 1781 the British forces there were 
also withdrawn to the seaboard. Cornwallis marched 
north from Wilmington into Virginia, and Washington 
sent Lafayette with the light troops of the Continental 



260 



GEORGE III. 



[178a 



line to watch him. Both sides ere long went into camp 
for the winter, Cornwallis at Yorktown, and Lafayette 
at Malvern Hill, and later at Williamsburg. In the 
summer of 1780 Marquis Rochambeau had arrived 

at Newport with a 
strong force of 
French veteran sol- 
diers ; but before 
the ships, which 
brought this army 
from France, could 
get away, the Eng- 
lish fleet appeared, 
and blockaded them 
in the harbor of 
Newport. The 
French army was 
compelled to wait 
at Newport to pro- 
tect, the fleet, and 
for a year was prac- 
tically useless. In 
September, Wash- 
ington and Rocham- 
beau held a confer- 
ence. While Wash- 
ington was away 




COSTUMES OF PERSONS OF QUALITY, 
ABOUT I783. 



from his army, Benedict Arnold, who had taken of- 
• fence at his treatment at Saratoga, formed a 

Arnold's & ' 

treason plan to surrender the strong forts at West Point, 

with its garrison and stores, to the British. 

Major Andre, a young officer of Clinton's army, came 

to West Point to conclude arrangements with Arnold. 



1781.] CAPTURE OF YORKTOWN. 261 

In disguise, and with compromising papers in his 
boots, he was captured by a party of Americans. 
Arnold escaped, but Washington was compelled to 
treat Andre as a spy, and as a spy he was hanged. 

During the summer of 1781 it became known to 
Washington and Rochambeau that a powerful French 
fleet under Comte de Grasse would arrive at the _ . 

Capture 

mouth of Chesapeake Bay early in September, of 
It was decided to march the allied army from town 
Newport and New York to Virginia, to join 
Lafayette and any French troops De Grasse might 
bring, and, while the French fleet should prevent Clin- 
ton from reinforcing Cornwallis, to capture him and 
his army. This programme was carried out to the let- 
ter. The French ships at Newport slipped out of the 
harbor, and reached the Chesapeake safely. De Grasse 
and the allied armies arrived in good time to come to- 
gether. De Grasse fought a battle with the English 
fleet; but while neither side was victorious, all the 
advantages of victory were gained by the allies, as the 
English fleet was obliged to return to New York for 
the purpose of refitting before it again put to sea. 
Cornwallis surrendered Yorktown, with its defenders, 
Oct. 19, 1 78 1. This was the last important conflict 
between the English and the Americans. But the war 
was still vigorously prosecuted against the allies of the 
colonies. 

The royal disaster at Yorktown not only settled the 
question whether America should be free, but it also 
decided the fate of the North ministry. Lord Endofthe 
George Germaine, the Colonial Secretary, was Ministry 
the first to resign. He had had the principal ( x 7 8l) - 
direction of the war in America, and to his mis- 



262 GEORGE III. [1782. 

management the failure of the British armies was 
largely due. He was now raised to the peerage as 
Lord Sackville. As he had been dismissed from the 
army during the Seven Years' War for disobedience to 
orders, many peers objected to his sitting in the House 
of Lords; but they could do nothing to prevent it. 
The Opposition in the Commons now rapidly acquired 
strength. The 20th of March, 1782, was selected for 
a great attack on the Government. But when that day 
came, Lord North seized a chance to speak, and an- 
nounced the resignation of the ministry; and the 
House, as was its custom, adjourned, to give the Oppo- 
sition leaders time to talk over their future plans. It 
was a harsh, wet night, and the members, expecting a 
long debate, had sent their carriages away. Lord 
North had retained his, and stepping into it, he re- 
marked, with a smile, " You see, gentlemen, the 
advantage of being in the secret." In fact, this un- 
broken good nature was Lord North's most noteworthy 
characteristic. He even used to fall into a gentle 
slumber while Fox and Burke were attacking him and 
his Government. 

The Marquis of Rockingham and the Whigs now 
took office. Charles James Fox and Lord Shelburne 
were the two Secretaries of State and the real leaders 
of the Government, in which Lord Camden, 
Rocking- Admiral Keppel, and Edmund Burke had places. 
Ministry Lord Chancellor Thurlow alone represented the 
7 2 '° king. The ministry had three important ques- 
tions to settle, — the conclusion of peace, the reform 
of the home administration, and the pacification of 
Ireland. The Irish question will be best considered 
later in connection with the union. To the Opposition 



1782.] THE ROCKINGHAM MINISTRY. • 263 

in power the project of a reform of the administration 
in the direction of purity and economy seemed less 
desirable than it had seemed while others were enjoy- 
ing the spoils. It was desirable, however, at least to 
seem to carry out their former promises. A bill was 




EDMUND BURKE : FROM A PAINTING BY REYNOLDS IN 
THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 

passed abolishing many abuses, though not till the 
Whigs had secured a good deal of spoil for themselves. 
Edmund Burke alone consistently refused to share in 
the general distribution. 

The Rockingham ministry had come into power 
mainly on account of the disasters in America. Peace 



264 GEORGE III. [1782. 

with America was their policy. They believed that 
the Americans might be detached from the French as 
the price of independence, provided ample concessions 
in the way of boundaries were made in return. Now 
it so happened that John Jay, himself of French 
descent, and John Adams, two of the American com- 
missioners to negotiate a treaty of peace, distrusted 
the French Government. They believed that France 
was using the United States as a tool for her own 
ends, and was really opposed to the extension of the 
new state as far as the Mississippi River. It is proba- 
ble that Jay was right in his belief; but for a long time 
the third commissioner, Benjamin Franklin, refused 
to believe him. The treaty of alliance provided that 
neither party should make peace without the other, and 
the instructions to the American commissioners ordered 
them to act in conjunction with the French Govern- 
ment. Finally, however, Jay prevailed. The com- 
missioners broke their instructions, and, without the 
T . knowledge of the French Government, con- 

Indepen- ° 7 

dence eluded an agreement, or set of articles, which 
edged should be made into a treaty whenever France 
(l?82) " and England should make peace. In this way 
the United States became an independent nation, with 
boundaries extending as far as the Mississippi on the 
west, and as far south as the thirty-first parallel of 
latitude. Before the treaty was actually concluded, 
Rockingham died, and Fox, who had quarrelled with 
Shelburne, withdrew from the Government with his 
friends. Shelburne became Prime Minister, and had 
for his Chancellor of the Exchequer a young man of 
twenty-three, — William Pitt, — the younger son of 
the Earl of Chatham. 



1783.] 



CONCLUSION OF THE WAR. 



265 



After the disaster at Yorktown, England was every- 
where successful. Gibraltar, which the Spaniards and 
French had been besieging since 1779, was re- c d 
inforced, and supplied with provisions in 1782. sion 
In the same year Admiral Rodney defeated, with war 
great loss, the Comte de Grasse off Martinique. 3 ' 
These two disasters made France and Spain willing to 
make peace on reasonable terms, and in September, 
1783, the treaties were signed at Versailles and Paris. 
In the course of the war Spain had overrun the Flori- 
das, and at the peace she retained all of North America 
south of the United States, as well as Louisiana, west 
of the Mississippi River. 




ROYAL ARMS, AS BORNE FROM l8oi TO 1816 I THE HANOVERIAN 
SCUTCHEON, SURMOUNTED BY AN ELECTORAL BONNET. 



266 GEORGE III. [1783. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

GEORGE III. 

1 760-1820. 
Part II. 1783-1820. 

FOR years Charles James Fox and Lord North had 
sat on opposite sides of the House of Commons, 
The and had abused each other in the most outra- 
tion^ 1 " geous fashion. They now joined hands, or coa- 
(1783). lesced, to turn Shelburne out of office, and put 
themselves in. Between them they possessed a large 
majority in the House of Commons. In 1783 Shel- 
burne resigned, and North and Fox came in. The 
king was furiously indignant. He hated Fox, and did 
not wish to have anything to do with him. But he was 
enraged above all at the ingratitude of Lord North, 
for whom he had done so much. At first the king 
declared he would go to Hanover. But sober second 
thought convinced him it would be better to endure 
Fox and North for a while till something should turn 
up which would bring about their downfall. He did 
not have long to wait. 

The English East India Company had made itself 
master of a large part of India. The Company was 
Fox's fi rst of all a business venture, and must pay 
Jjgjk dividends to its stockholders. The hostility 
(1783)- of the French, and the desire to extend the 
Company's boundaries, gave rise to incessant wars, 



1783-] WILLIAM PITT, PRIME MINISTER. 267 

which cost enormous sums of money. The Gover- 
nor-general was now Warren Hastings. To meet the 
demands for funds in India and in England he had 
resorted to many tyrannical measures, and great hard- 
ship and oppression to the natives had resulted. It 
was perfectly plain that this state of things could 
not be allowed to exist indefinitely. Fox and Burke 
drew up a bill for the better government of India, by 
which the political control of the country was placed 
under the Home Government. This was all very 
well, except that Fox so arranged matters that the 
appointment to the offices in India would be in his 
hands, or in those of his political friends, even if he 
ceased to be in the ministry. This of course aroused 
great opposition. The king saw his chance, and when 
the bill came to the Lords, declared he should regard 
any peer who voted for it as his personal enemy. The 
measure was defeated, and the king sent an under- 
officer to tell North and Fox that they were dismissed. 
He chose as his new Prime Minister William Pitt, now 
twenty-four years of age. 

While still a youth in appearance, William Pitt, as 
a political leader and debater in the House of Com- 
mons, had no equal. As a war minister and 
orator he was inferior to his father; in all else pm, 
he was his superior. Besides the small party ^iSer 
called the "King's Friends," and those few [%*A~ 
members who remained true to his father's 
principles, William Pitt had no adherents in the Com- 
mons. In fact, almost all his companions in the minis- 
try were members of the House of Peers. Alone, 
therefore, he faced the combined oratory of Fox, Burke, 
Sheridan, and Lord North. But the lack of principle 



268 



GEORGE III. 



[1783. 



shown by Fox and North in making their coalition had 
disgusted a great many people. One by one their ad- 
herents went over to the side of Pitt and the king, 
till the majority against him was reduced to one. 
Then Parliament was dissolved. In the general elec- 
tion which followed, 
one hundred and sixty 
of Fox's friends 
("Fox's Martyrs," 
they were called) lost 
their seats. Pitt had 
a great majority, and 
it was full half a cen- 
tury before the Whig 
party recovered from 
the effects of this 
blow. 

Secure now of a ma- 
jority, Pitt brought 
in a new India Bill, 
Pitt's establishing a 
S a Board of Con- 
,( J 784)- trol resident in 
England, and consist- 
ing of members of the 
ministry, as the su- 
preme governing body. The business management of 
the Company was left to its directors. This system 
lasted till 1858. 

The leading feature of the first half of Pitt's long 
ministry was his financial policy. He was a friend 
and disciple of Adam Smith, and believed in interna- 
tional friendliness in matters of business. For cen- 




PITT SPEAKING IN THE HOUSE OF COM- 
MONS: FROM HUCKEL'S PAINTING IN 
THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 



1788.] TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. 269 

turies England and France had been injuring each 
other's trade as much as possible. It seemed to Pitt 
best that the two countries should buy of one an- 
other what each country could best produce. A financial 
commercial treaty between them was made. Pitt p0 lcy ' 
wished to extend the same principle by establishing 
freedom of trade between Ireland and England. But 
English manufacturers were too much afraid of Irish 
competition, and the scheme fell through. Pitt also 
thought that England should try to pay her national 
debt, and he set on foot a plan by which this would 
be accomplished in time. For a while this scheme 
worked well; but in the great wars which soon fol- 
lowed, all thought of paying the debt was for a time 
abandoned, and the money already saved for the pur- 
pose was used to prosecute the war. Another scheme 
that Pitt had much at heart was a reform of the repre- 
sentation in the House of Commons. But the time 
had not yet come for this, and the plan failed. 

In 1785 Warren Hastings returned home from India. 
While drawing up their India Bill, Fox and Burke 
had come across acts that seemed like extortion and 
tyranny on the part of Hastings. They now Trial of 
presented Articles of Impeachment ; and as Pitt Ha™ g s 
refused to interfere in the matter, Hastings was C 1 ? 88 )- 
impeached. The trial began before the Peers in 1788, 
and continued at intervals for seven years. Hastings 
was finally acquitted. 

In 1788 the king again became insane. The Prince 
of Wales was the boon companion of Fox, who now 
proposed that the prince should, of his own The 
authority, assume the title of recent, with full agency 

J ' £> > struggle 

power. Of course this meant the overthrow of (1788). 



270 



GEORGE III. 



fi793- 



Pitt. It happened that Pitt and the doctors re- 
garded the king's attack as temporary. Pitt thought 
it would be more agreeable to the king when he re- 




HEAD-DRESS OF A LADY (MRS. ABTNGTON), ABOUT 1778 : FROM 
THE " EUROPEAN MAGAZINE." 



covered to find affairs as little changed as possible. 
He therefore proposed to limit the powers of the re- 
gent, at least until the king should become, in the 
opinion of the doctors, permanently insane. To this 



1793-1 FRANCE DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND. 2J\ 

Fox would not listen, and while the two sides were 
still debating, the king recovered, and Pitt was firmer 
than ever in his office. 

In 1789 began the great social upheaval in France 
known as the French Revolution. At first most Eng- 
lishmen sympathized with the movement. But The 
when it became apparent that the revolutionary Revoiu- 
leaders were aiming to establish a democratic tion - 
form of government, many Englishmen took alarm. 
At the same time societies for political reform sprang 
up in England. Edmund Burke became the leader of 
those opposed to change. He wrote a book called 
"Reflections on the French Revolution." In this 
book he enlarged on the democratic tendencies of the 
French Revolution, and called the Frenchmen "the 
ablest architects of ruin that have hitherto existed in 
the world." 

For four years Pitt maintained a policy of. non- 
intervention. But in 1792 France offered aid to all 
nations who would overthrow their rulers. In 1793 
those who sympathized with the excesses in France 
grew more outspoken in England. Pitt, now himself 
alarmed, called out the militia, and carried an Act 
through Parliament giving the Government France 
control of the movements of aliens or strangers war 
visiting England. France now declared war ^gknd 
on England, although she was even then at war ( J 793)- 
with nearly all western Europe. At the time, Pitt's 
attitude of repression and opposition was greatly 
applauded. But some historical writers now regard 
it as a very great political blunder. 

During the early years of this war Pitt contented 
himself with hiring Austria and Prussia to fight Eng- 



272 GEORGE III. [1797. 

land's battles on the land. He also helped the royal- 
ists to return to France to stir up disaffection and re- 
pitt's bellions against the central government atParis. 
policy. Q£ course the English navy was not idle. As 
the war went on, Pitt's home policy became more and 
more repressive. The most insignificant publications 
and disturbances were treated as the beginnings of 
revolution. But there seems to have been no real 
danger, although there was much suffering among the 
. working-people, and although the king was more 
payments than once insulted in the streets. Then fol- 
ed lowed a great scarcity of money in England. 

(1797)- M uc h was sen t abroad by the Government, and 
much was hoarded at home by careful people. At 
length the cash in the Bank of England was so dimin- 
ished that the Government ordered it to suspend specie 
payments, and they were not resumed till 18 19, 

In this year, 1797, two mutinies broke out in the 
fleet, — one at Spithead, by the Isle of Wight, the 
Mutinies other at the Nore, in the Thames. The sailors 
fleet were soon brought to terms, and many of their 
(1797)- demands granted. A few months later some of 
these very seamen won the battle of Camperdown over 
the Dutch and French fleet. 

France was now at peace with all the rest of Europe, 
and as she could not, owing to this disaster at Camper- 
down, attack England directly, she sent an army 

Invasion ° J J 

of to seize Egypt, which lies on the road to Eng- 

land's possessions in India. The leader of this 
invasion was Napoleon Bonaparte. On his way to 
Egypt he seized the island of Malta, which up to that 
time had been in the hands of the Knights of Malta. 
All this time there was in the Mediterranean a great 



I779-] IRELAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 273 

English fleet commanded by Admiral Nelson; but he 
did not find Napoleon's fleet till the French Ba ttie 
general had been on shore about two weeks, ^ile 6 
Nelson attacked it as it lay at anchor in Aboukir < J 798). 
Bay, and captured or destroyed all but two of the French 
ships. The French army never left Egypt. But in 
1799 Napoleon returned home, and made himself ruler 
of France. We must now turn to Ireland; for the 
French now helped the Irish against England, as 
formerly they had assisted the Scots. 

The Irish Roman Catholics formed the great mass 
of the population of Ireland, but they were ruled over 
by the small minority of English and Scottish 
Protestants. Successive conquests had given in the 
nearly all the power to the Protestants. They teenth 
regarded the Irish Catholics as a half-barbarized cen ury ' 
and degraded race, much as some of our ancestors in 
this country regarded the negro. An Irish Roman 
Catholic could not marry a Protestant. He could not 
serve on a grand jury, practise law, or act as a magis- 
trate. He was not allowed to carry arms, and it was 
against the law for him to educate his children through 
Roman Catholic teachers. He was compelled to pay 
taxes for the support of the Established Protestant 
Church, which he detested. And finally he could 
neither sit in any Parliament nor vote for a member 
of any Parliament. 

During the American Revolution the English troops 
previously stationed in Ireland were sent to America, 
and an association of Protestant Volunteers was The 
formed to preserve the peace in Ireland. In teers" 
1779, under the lead of Henry Grattan, the (l779) - 
Volunteers turned against the Government, and some 



274 GEORGE III. [1798. 

modifications of the trade laws were made. In 1782 
the Catholics joined the Protestants in urging their 
demands, and the Rockingham ministry so far yielded 
as to give up the right of the British Parliament to 
legislate for Ireland. 

The ideas of equality forced on the world by the 
French Revolution spread to Ireland, and in 1789 a 
The great association of Catholic and Protestant 
of°the y Irishmen — The United Irishmen — was formed. 
united j n iyg 2 and 1 793 two Acts were passed, repealing 
men - the more odious laws against the Catholics, and 
even allowing them to vote for members of the Irish 
Parliament. But as no Catholic could sit in that 
Parliament, this last right really amounted to little. 
Later a bill was introduced to allow Catholics to sit in 
Parliament. But the king became convinced that if he 
assented to this he would violate his coronation oath, 
which obliges him to maintain the Protestant Church 
as established by law. The plan was abandoned. 

The Irish leaders now thought the only way to 
secure their rights lay in complete separation from 
Great Britain. To counteract them the Protestants 
formed a secret society, calling themselves Orange- 
men, in memory of William of Orange. The 
(1796- discontented Catholics appealed for aid to the 
79 ' French, and in 1796 a French fleet anchored off 
the Irish coast. A storm arose, and no Irish appeared, 
and the fleet returned to France. When the French- 
men were gone, the Irish rose in various places. The 
rebellion was soon put down with much vigor and great 
cruelty by General Lake. The only conflict worthy 
the name of battle was at Vinegar Hill, in 1798. In 
1799 the French decided to invade England, and also 



i8oo.] THE UNION. 275 

attack her on her weak side in Ireland. But the 
French and Spanish fleets were thoroughly beaten by 
the English, off Cape St. Vincent, and nothing came 
of this attempt. 

Lord Cornwallis now became Lord Lieutenant, or 
Governor, of Ireland. He had for his secretary Lord 
Castlereagh, a young Irish Protestant. They 
soon decided that the only cure for Irish Union 
troubles was a union with England, like the 
union made with Scotland in the early part of the 
century. Pitt had already made up his mind that this 
would be the best policy. So Cornwallis and Castle- 
reagh secured a majority of the Irish Parliament to vote 
its dissolution. In 1800 the Act of Union passed the 
Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland. By this Act 
Ireland was to send one hundred commoners to the 
House of Commons of the United Kingdom ; while the 
Irish peerage was to be represented in the House of 
Lords by twenty-eight Irish peers, elected for life. 

The Irish Catholics had not opposed the Union, 
probably because they expected Catholics would be 
allowed to sit in the Parliament of the United King- 
dom. What promises Pitt and Cornwallis may have 
made is not known. But Pitt, when he found 

. Emmett's 

that the king would not permit any con- Rebellion 
cessions to be made to the Catholics, felt * ° 3 ' 
obliged to resign. In fact, the Irish Catholics gained 
nothing by the Union. Their discontent resulted in 
Emmett's Rebellion in 1803. It was easily put down, 
and Emmett was hanged. 

Pitt was followed by Addington, whose principal re- 
commendation for office was the favor of the king. 
By this time Napoleon had conquered most of west- 



276 GEORGE III. [1805. 

ern Europe, while the English had been successful 
Peace of wherever their navy could be used to advan- 
Amiens. tage> There seemed to be no way of attacking 
each other directly, and in 1802 peace was made at 
Amiens. 

This peace, however, did not last long. Neither 
party trusted the other, and neither France nor Eng- 
land acted in perfect good faith. In addition, England 
War furnished a refuge to Frenchmen hostile to 

renewed Napoleon, and from London they attacked 
(1803). .... 

him in the newspapers with great violence. 

So in 1803 the war began anew. It lasted till 1815, 
and was waged by England and her allies against the 
ambitious designs of Napoleon, who took the title of 
Emperor of the French. 

Napoleon's first idea was to invade England, and 
he made great preparations to embark his army at 
Boulogne. He had control of the fleets of France, 
Holland, and Spain, and determined to combine them 
against the English fleet, and thus make the passage 
for his army to England secure. But now once more the 
English showed their great superiority on the water. 
Admiral Nelson caught the French and Spanish fleet 
Trafalgar °ff Cape Trafalgar. He hoisted at his mast- 
(1805). head his famous signals, which read, " England 
expects every man to do his duty ! " The allied fleet 
numbered thirty-three line-of-battle ships, and seven 
smaller vessels. Nelson had with him but twenty- 
seven ships. Of those forty ships of the allies only 
eight ever reached a friendly port. It was only on the 
sea, however, that the French were defeated. On the 
land they were everywhere victorious. The Austrians 
joining the English, Napoleon captured one Austrian 



1807.] TORY MINISTRY. 277 

army at Ulm, in October, and overthrew a combined 
army of Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz on De- 
cember 2d, 1805. 

Meantime William Pitt had again become Prime 
Minister. His health had always been poor, K , 
and these disasters to England's allies, coupled Second 

• , 1 r 1 % 1 Ministry 

with the attacks of the Opposition at home, (1804- 
proved too great a burden. In January, 1806, 
he died. A ministry was now formed, comprising men 
of all parties; hence it was called the min- ah the 
istry of "All the Talents." Lord Grenville J^ 
and Mr. Fox were its leading members. Fox l8 ° 7) 
was Foreign Secretary. He had always maintained 
that if Napoleon were treated fairly, he would act 
honestly in return In a short time he was undeceived ; 
and, worn out by care and dissipation, he followed Pitt 
to the grave. Side by side the two are buried in West- 
minster Abbey. 

" The mighty chiefs sleep side by side. 
Drop upon Fox's grave the tear, 
'T will trickle to his rival's bier ; 
O'er Pitt's the mournful requiem sound. 
And Fox's shall the notes rebound." 

Left to himself, Lord Grenville tried to modify the 
laws against the Catholics serving in the army, and was 
dismissed by the king. A Tory ministry was Tory 
then formed, which lasted, with some changes, f^fl y 
till 1827. Mr. Spencer Perceval was at first the l82 ?)- 
real head of this Government, though for a time he only 
held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The 
two most remarkable members were Mr. George Can- 
ning and Lord Castlereagh, Secretaries for Foreign 
Affairs and War. 



278 GEORGE III. [1809. 

While these changes had been taking place in Eng- 
land, Napoleon had in turn defeated the Prussians, the 
Russians, and the Austrians. In fact the Czar 

Napo- 
leon's of Russia became for a while the ally of 

successes. 1 1 • 

Napoleon, who, to strengthen his position, 
married a daughter of the Emperor of Austria. He 




LORD NELSON : FROM THE PICTURE BY ABBOTT IN THE 
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 

was now master of Europe, with the exception of 
Spain and England. He again turned his attention 
to the invasion of the latter country. During all this 



1809.] THE PENINSULAR WAR. 279 

time the Danes had preserved a good-sized and well- 
manned fleet. Napoleon resolved to add these vessels 
to those he still controlled, and with their aid attack 
England. But Canning heard of Napoleon's plans, and 
sent an English fleet to Copenhagen which seized the 
Danish fleet and brought it to England. Thus once 
again all fears of invasion were removed. 

Napoleon then conquered Spain, and tried to make his 
brother king of that country. But the Spaniards were a 
high-spirited people, and resisted this foreign 
domination. The English at first sent the Span- Spanish 

, . . , resistance, 

lards money and arms, and then an army to 
help them. But these early efforts produced little per- 
manent result. In 1809, too, the English tried to seize 
Antwerp, and failed most ignominiously. This same 
year, however, a considerable force of soldiers , 
was sent to Portugal, and the Peninsular War Weiiesiey, 
really began. The commander of the English weiimg- 
army was Sir Arthur Wellesley. He had already 
done good service in Portugal, and at a still earlier day 
had achieved great distinction in India, where he had 
won, against great odds, the battles of Argaum and 
Assaye. In a short time he drove the French from 
Portugal, and, entering Spain, beat them at Talavera. 
For this victory he was raised to the peerage as Lord 
Wellington of Talavera. 

Before long he was compelled to retire to Lisbon, 
near which town, at Torres Vedras, he had constructed 
great works to shelter his army. On his retreat The 
he destroyed or carried away every eatable Penin- 



thing; and when the French reached Torres 

Vedras, they could not attack him, and retreated 

back to Spain again, to avoid being starved. Many 



280 GEORGE III. [1814. 

English writers regard this as the turning-point of the 
war, and say that the lesson taught by Wellington at 
Torres Vedras saved Europe. At all events, from this 
time on, Napoleon was attacked, first on this side, and 
then on that. We cannot follow Wellington's campaigns 




THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON : FROM A BUST BY FRANCIS 
IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 

in detail. For years the war went on with varying for- 
tune. At last, in 181 3, Wellington overwhelmed the 
French at Vittoria, and, forcing them north over the 
Pyrenees, compelled their surrender at Toulouse in 
1814. 

But on the day of this surrender Napoleon was no 
longer Emperor. In 18 12 he quarrelled with the Czar, 



1812.] WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. 28 1 

and invaded Russia. Of his great army a mere fraction 
returned to France. The Prussians and Austrians joined 
the Russians. Napoleon, defeated at Leipzig, 
retreated from Russia. The allies pressed on, leon's 
while Wellington entered France from the south, 
and Napoleon abdicated. He was allowed to retire to 
the little island of Elba. Louis XVI. 's brother became 
king of France as Louis XVIII., and the allies held a 
great Congress at Vienna to undo, if possible, the work 
of the French Revolution and Napoleon. Lord Castle- 
reagh and Wellington, now become Duke of Wellington, 
represented England at this meeting. 

While all this had been going on in Europe, England 
had become involved in a war with the United States. 
As one means of injuring Napoleon, the English 
Government had issued a proclamation, or Order *8 T2 
in Council, as it was called, declaring all the United 

States 

ports of Europe, from Brest to the Elbe, closed 
or blockaded to commerce. Napoleon had replied with 
the Berlin Decree, declaring Great Britain blockaded. 
Now there was some excuse for this first Order in 
Council, as the English were actually blockading the 
ports of France and Holland. But Napoleon could not 
keep a French fleet on the sea, and, what was still more 
laughable, at this very moment when he declared the 
commerce of England at an end, his own soldiers were 
wearing clothes made in England. Orders in Council 
and Decrees now followed in quick succession. It 
happened that the only neutral nation possessing any 
ships at that time was the United States, and these 
decrees ruined many American shipowners. Then, too, 
there was another cause of disagreement with England ; 
for English cruisers were in the habit of stopping Amer- 



282 GEORGE III, [1815 

ican ships, and seizing any British seamen they found on 
board. As British and American seamen looked much 
alike, many Americans were seized, and much irritation 
was aroused. The war broke out in 18 12, and lasted till 
1 8 14, when it was concluded by a treaty made at Ghent. 
The principal result of the war for America was the loss 
of the fishery rights the Americans enjoyed under the 
treaty of 1783. As for England, the war diverted 
resources soon to be sorely needed elsewhere. 

The allies did not get on very smoothly in their dis- 
cussions at Vienna, nor did Louis XVIII. win the good 
Napo- will of the French people. In March, 181 5, 
return Napoleon landed on the southern coast of 
(1815). France. All the troops sent to oppose him 
went over to his side, and he reached Paris without 
any trouble, and once more ruled France as Emperor. 
The allies dissolved the Congress, and determined to 
crush Napoleon at once, before he could consolidate 
his power. 

The Duke of Wellington (the " Iron Duke," as his 
soldiers called him) took command of the English and 
Belgians in Belgium, while a strong Prussian army under 
Marshal Blucher marched to his aid. The Russians and 
Austrians entered France from the east. Napoleon 
determined to attack Wellington and Blucher before 
they could unite. He defeated the Prussians 

Waterloo, J 

juneiSth, at Ligny, and then marched to Waterloo, and 
attacked Wellington on June 18th, 181 5. For 
hours the English maintained their ground, even after 
the Belgians had fled. At length, in the early evening, 
the Prussians appeared. They attacked the French with 
vigor, and in a short time all was over. Napoleon fled 
to Paris ; thence to the seaboard, where he tried to 



1819.] COMMERCIAL DEPRESSION. 283 

embark for America. That plan failing, he surrendered 
himself to the English. To their keeping he was con- 
fided by Europe. For six years, till his death, in 1821, 
he lived on the island of St. Helena, strictly guarded. 

The next five years were marked by great distress 
and suffering in England. During the war Englishmen 
had been obliged to rely upon England alone 

& J r & Agncul- 

for food. The price of meat doubled, and turai 
that of breadstuffs increased threefold. This 
great rise led to undue extension of grain-raising, and 
to a great rise of rents. At the return of peace 
prices of breadstuffs fell nearly one-half. Great num- 
bers of farmers were ruined. The demand for labor 
in the fields declined, and there was great suffering 
throughout the farming districts. The land- CornLaw 
owners were represented in Parliament, how- of l8l5# 
ever, and a law was passed forbidding the importation 
of wheat till the price of English grown wheat had 
reached a high figure. This helped the farmers, but 
increased the distress of the manufacturing population. 

During the years of war great inventions were made in 
the arts, and steam began to be used to drive machinery 
in large factories. Manufacturing by hand was still 
practised, and the hand-workers saw with dismay a 
machine set going in their neighborhood, capable of 
making as much in one day as all the workers of ~ 

& J Commer- 

the village could make in a month. The working- «ai de- 

111 11 .11 pression, 

men thought the trouble was with the new 
inventions, and bands of them went about breaking 
machinery. They were called Luddites, from a The 
crazy lad, John Ludd, who set the evil example. Luddltes - 
The working-men now fell under the influence of agita- 
tors. In 1 8 16 a meeting was held on Spa Fields, in 



284 



GEORGE III. 



[1819. 



London, to bring about the seizure of London Tower, 
then, and now, used as a storehouse for arms. Other 
meetings followed, and the Government on its part 
adopted very severe measures to prevent disturbances. 




GEORGE III. IN OLD AGE : FROM TURNERS MEZZOTINT. 



The most famous of these meetings was held at Man- 
chester in 1 8 19. The people assembled to listen to 
The Man- Mr. " Orator " Hunt, a popular speaker. The 
Massacre authorities of the town ordered the officers to 
(1819). arrest him while speaking. Some militiamen 
were sent to help the officers. The crowd was so great 
that these few men could do nothing. Now thoroughly 



i820.] THE REGENCY. 285 

alarmed, the magistrates ordered a body of cavalry to 
disperse the mob. The cavalry charged with drawn 
sabres, striking right and left. The crowd became 
panic-stricken, and a terrible scene resulted. How 
many were killed and wounded will never be known. 
The meeting was held on St. Peter's Fields, and the 
massacre is known as the " Manchester Massacre," or 
" Peterloo." 

The massacre, however, gave new strength to the 
ministry, and the Six Acts were passed, placing 

JL lie olX 

almost unlimited power to deal with disturbance Acts 

in the hands of the Government. A few months 

later, in the beginning of 1820, King George III. died, 

Since 18 10 he had been hopelessly insane, and the last 

few years he had become blind also. His son, The 

the Prince of Wales, had governed for him as Regency 
' & (1810- 

Prince Regent ; he now became king as George l820 )- 
IV. The Tory ministry which had followed "All the 
Talents " was still in power, though Perceval had been 
murdered by a lunatic in 18 12. Lord Liverpool suc- 
ceeded him, and remained Prime Minister till his death, 
in 1827. Canning and Castlereagh had quarrelled in 
1809, and had both resigned. In 1812, however, Castle- 
reagh returned to office as Foreign Secretary. 



286 GEORGE IV. [1820. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

GEORGE IV. 

1820-1830. 

THE Prince Regent, now become king, was the last 
of the " Four Georges," and the worst. He 
seems to have had no redeeming quality either as man 
Queen ° r ruler. His first effort as king was to get rid 
Caroline. Q f fa s w jf Cj Caroline of Brunswick. His father 
had compelled him to marry her as a condition of 
paying his debts. Queen Caroline was by no means 
a high-minded woman, but George IV. was so detested 
that popular sympathy was on her side. A Bill of 
Pains and Penalties to divorce the queen and to deprive 
her of her rights was introduced into Parliament, but 
popular feeling was too strong, and the plan was aban- 
doned. Queen Caroline was refused her proper place 
at the coronation, however, and died of a broken heart. 
In 1822 Lord Castlereagh died, and George Canning 
again became Foreign Secretary. Castlereagh had sym- 
pathized with the despotic attempts of the European 
monarchs to revive the old state of things in their coun- 
tries, and to resist all future attempts at revolution. 
Canning was liberal, and at once England's foreign pol- 
icy underwent a complete change. He could not effect 
much on the continent of Europe, as there the military 
power of the kings was supreme. No sooner would a 
revolution break out in one state than all the neighboring 



1828.] WELLINGTON-PEEL MINISTRY. 287 

kings would send their armies and put the rising down. 
In 1820-25 the Spanish American colonists, in com- 
mon with the people of the mother-country, rebelled. 
The rising in Spain was put down by France. It was 
then decided to send over an army to crush the rebellion 
in the colonies. But the English fleet was supreme on 
the water. Canning declared that Spain might put down 
the rebels if she were able, but that neither France nor 
any other power should help her. England and the 
United States then joined in declaring to the world that 
the repressive systems then employed in the Old World 
should not be extended to America. This, with other 
declarations, forms what is called the " Monroe Doc- 
trine." Of course England was glad to see Spanish 
America free, as in this way new markets would be 
open to her commerce ; but, as far as Canning, at least, 
was concerned, a love of freedom was probably the 
leading motive for the action of the English Govern- 
ment. 

In 1827 Lord Liverpool died, and Canning became 
Prime Minister. The Conservative members of the 
ministry, Wellington, Lord Chancellor Eldon, „ T „. 

Welhng- 

Robert Peel, and some others, at once resigned. ton-Peel 
They and their adherents then attacked Canning (Xl- 7 
so fiercely that he was unable to bear the strain, l830) * 
and died. For a few months his friends continued in 
office, and then the Duke of Wellington became Prime 
Minister. Robert Peel, however, was the real leader in 
this ministry, which lasted till 1830. 

George Canning was Prime Minister for only a few 
months; but his ministry none the less marks the 
downfall of the repressive system forced on England 
by the excesses of the French Revolution. From 1827 



GEORGE IV. 



[1827. 



dates the period of social and constitutional reform 
which has lasted to our own time. Curiously enough, 
two of the greatest reforms of this whole epoch are 
associated with Wellington and Peel, the leaders of the 
conservative Tories. In his earlier years Peel had been 




CANNING : FROM STEWARDSON'S PORTRAIT. 



Secretary for Ireland. He had introduced the con- 
stabulary, or rural police, and had so energetically up- 
held the rights of the Protestants as to earn the title of 
" Orange Peel." There was in Ireland a leader called 
Daniel O'Connell, a lawyer, a few years older than Peel. 
Under his guidance was formed a society called the 
Catholic Association. Before long the Association be- 
came in some parts of Ireland more powerful than the 



1829.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 289 

English Government ; and at a time when the Govern- 
ment could not collect the church tax, the Association 
collected what was called the Catholic rent, or annual 
contribution to carry on the agitation for Catholic relief. 
Canning favored the Catholic claims, and carried a bill 
for their relief through the House of Commons, which 
was thrown out by the Lords. At the same time a 
law was passed suppressing the Catholic Association. 
O'Connell obeyed the law, while carrying on the organi- 
zation by other means. 

In 1828 O'Connell discovered a new way of showing 
the Catholic power. In Ireland all freeholders, or 
leaseholders for a long term of years, to the extent 
of two pounds, or forty shillings, could vote for 
Members of Parliament. It so happened that „ , ,. 

1 L Catholic 

the landlords in some parts of Ireland had Emancipa- 
broken up their estates into forty-shilling " free- 
holds," to increase their political influence. O'Connell 
now took advantage of this, and caused himself to be 
elected to Parliament for County Clare. Of course he 
could not take his seat; but the power of the great 
agitator was apparent. Thirty thousand Irish peasants 
assembled at Ennis. Not a disturbance of any kind 
occurred, and the only drunken man in the place was 
O'Connell's coachman, who happened to be an English 
Protestant. This meeting convinced both Wellington 
and Peel that something must be done; and in 1829 
the Catholic Relief Act was passed. By it Catholics 
might sit in Parliament on taking an oath to support the 
state and not to injure the Established Church. The first 
Catholic to enter Parliament was the Duke of Norfolk, 
premier peer of England, whose family name of Howard 
recalls the defeat of the Armada and so much that is 

19 



290 



GEORGE IV. 



[1830. 



memorable in English history. Just before this Act was 
passed, a bill for the relief of Protestant Dissenters had 
become law, so that now all Christian subjects of the 
English Crown residing in the United Kingdom enjoyed 
equal civil rights, except in a very few trifling instances. 
At the same time the Irish franchise was raised from 
forty shillings, or two pounds, to ten pounds. Thus at 
the very time the Catholics were admitted to Parliament, 
the right to vote was taken away from the great mass 
of Catholics in Ireland. The next year George IV. died, 
and was succeeded by his brother, Duke of Clarence, as 
William IV. 




ROYAL ARMS, FROM 1816 TO 1837 : THE HANOVERIAN 
SCUTCHEON, SURMOUNTED BY A ROYAL CROWN. 



1830.] CAUSES OF DISCONTENT. 29 1 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

WILLIAM IV. 

1830-1837. 

\ T/TLLIAM IV. had been brought up in the navy. 
V V He resembled the bold, bluff admiral of the 
olden time. People called him the Sailor King, and 
trusted and liked him. It was fortunate that he was a 
popular man, with a good deal of common sense, The new 
though he had little of good breeding. Eng- king * 
land was, in fact, on the eve of a great revolution. The 
movement was guided wisely and well, and the nation 
took a very great step forward. Had an attempt been 
made to suppress the revolution, no one knows what 
might have happened. 

There was vast discontent and misery. Manufacturing 
towns had doubled and trebled in population in fifteen 
years, yet nothing was done to help the people 
who increased England's material prosperity, ofdis- 
Parliament was in the hands of landowners, who 
seemed to think that the factory hands might starve, pro- 
vided the price of English-grown grain were maintained. 
It was felt that the merchants and manufacturers should 
be more fully represented in Parliament, and there fight 
for the good of their working-people and of them- 
selves. The condition of the representation in Parlia- 
ment was, to an American, almost incredible. A large 
and prosperous town like Birmingham sent no member 



292 



WILLIAM IV. 



[1830 



to the House of Commons, while a ruined mound of 
earth showing where Old Sarum once stood, but now 
without a single human inhabitant, sent two members. 
These were the two extremes. But places whose in- 
habitants could be counted on one's fingers sent two 




OLD SARUM : FROM AN ENGRAVING PUBLISHED IN 1 843, SHOWING 
MOUND. (IT IS NOW OBSCURED BY TREES FROM 
THIS POINT OF VIEW.) 

members apiece, while great centres of commercial and 
manufacturing life were not represented at all. Then, 
again, in towns where many substantial people lived, 
only a very few could vote. In other places all the 
voters were tenants of some great landowner, and must 
vote as he directed, or be turned out of their farms. 
These last boroughs were called " pocket boroughs," 
and some great noblemen possessed several of them. 
So it came to pass that a majority of the House of 
Commons was returned by a few hundred persons, 



1832.] THE GREY MINISTRY. 293 

mostly landowners ; and many of them were members 
of the House of Lords. And this was not all; the right 
to sit in Parliament was a great honor, and many a rich 
man was willing to pay a large sum of money to a 
borough which would return him to Parliament. Some 
boroughs habitually sold the right to represent them. 
The nation, awaking to the fact that the House of 
Commons no longer represented England, was begin- 
ning to demand a change. While public feeling was 
in this state, the Duke of Wellington made a speech to 
the effect that the English constitution was perfection 
itself, and should not be changed at all. He was obliged 
to resign, and the Whigs, after nearly fifty years' exclu- 
sion from office, took control of the government. 

Earl Grey was the new Prime Minister. For nearly 
half a century he had advocated reform, and now at 
last, at the very end of his life, he was to bring The Grey 
it about. The new Lord Chancellor was Henry ministr >'* 
Brougham, who was even more radical in his views than 
Earl Grey. The leader of the House of Commons was 
Lord Althorp, eldest son of Earl Spencer. He was no 
speaker, but was so honest and upright that men of all 
parties respected and trusted him. To Lord John Rus- 
sell, a younger son of the Duke of Bedford, who held 
at the time a minor office, was given the task of bring- 
ing in the reform bill. Lord John Russell proposed 
to disfranchise the smaller boroughs, giving the seats 
thus gained to the larger towns and to the counties. 
He also proposed to make the voting qualification 
more uniform. When the names of the boroughs to 
be disfranchised were read, the members of those 
boroughs broke forth into shouts of loud laughter. 
Lord John Russell was supported by Mr. Thomas Bab- 



294 WILLIAM IV. [1832. 

ington Macaulay (afterwards Lord Macaulay) and Mr. 
Stanley (afterwards Lord Stanley, and, still later, Earl 
Derby). Mr. Macaulay's speeches best show in many 
respects the arguments for reform. The Government 
was soon defeated on a minor point, and Parlia- 
ment was dissolved. The new election was marked 
by much rioting and disorder. It resulted in a great 
majority for the reformers. Led by Sir Robert Peel, 
the Opposition opposed the second reform bill by all 
means within its power. It finally passed the Commons 
by a great majority. But the Lords were so hostile to 
reform that, foreseeing the defeat of the bill, Earl Grey 
resigned. The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel 
then tried to form a ministry. But they could not hope 
to face the great reform majority in the Commons, and 
Earl Grey returned to office, but only on one condition ; 
namely, that the king should create enough peers to 
turn the hostile majority in the House of Lords into a 
majority favorable to the measure. This was not neces- 
sary, however; for when the Duke of Wellington became 
convinced of the earnestness of the king, he and enough 
other hostile peers left the House, and allowed the third 
reform bill, which had meantime been passed by the 
Commons, to pass the Lords also. 

In this way the Reform Act of 1832 — the First 
Reform Act — became law. The Revolution of 1688 
The had transferred power from the Crown to the 

First aristocracy. The Reform Act of 1832 trans- 

Reform J ° 

Act ferred power from the aristocracy to the middle 

class, as it is called in England, consisting 
mainly of merchants and manufacturers. It was, there- 
fore, the first step in the process which has changed 
aristocratic England of 1800 to the democratic England 



1833.] THE FACTORY ACT. 295 

of to-day. The House of Lords still remains, but it was 
shorn of all its real power when it became clear that 
the king and ministry could at any moment control it 
by creating a sufficient number of new peers to form, 
in connection with the minority, a new majority. 

In 1833 the first Reformed Parliament met, and for 
the next few years reform after reform was accom- 
plished. For centuries there had been no system of 
slavery in Great Britain. Slavery in its harshest forms 
still continued in some of the colonies; but up to 1833 
the capitalists interested in its maintenance had pre- 
vented abolition. This was now decreed ; but ^ 

rLmanci- 

the emancipation was to extend over several pation of 
years, and the Government agreed to pay the 
slave-owners nearly one hundred million dollars as com- 
pensation. Sir Fowell Buxton carried the final measure 
through the Commons, the chief English abolitionists 
having been Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce. 
The latter died just before the bill abolishing slavery 
became law, though not before the success of his life- 
work was assured. 

While doing so much for the laborers in the colonies, 
Parliament could hardly refuse to do something for the 
laborers at home. In fact, the condition of an English 
factory operative was scarcely better than that of a 
West India slave. In 1833 a Factory Act was The Fac . 
passed, mainly through the persistent efforts tor y Act - 
of Lord Ashley. After this no woman could legally be 
employed in a factory more than twelve hours a day ; 
no person under eighteen years of age more than twelve 
hours ; no person under thirteen more than eight hours ; 
and very young children could not be employed at all. 
In 1847 the hours of all persons under eighteen were 
still further reduced to ten hours. 



296 WILLIAM IV. [1837. 

The Poor Laws passed towards the end of Queen 
Elizabeth's reign were still in force. Great abuses had 
grown up, till the honest, hardworking laborer was un- 
Reform able to compete with his pauper neighbor who 
rwLaw received a small allowance per week from the 
(1834). parish in addition to his wages. This was 
called out-door relief. Of course it is easy enough to 
see that the man who received this out-door relief could 
work for lower wages than the man who depended on 
his wages alone. Yet such was the condition of affairs 
in the agricultural districts. This was now changed, 
and in the future any one applying for aid must go to 
the workhouse and there work. The discontinuance of 
out-door relief caused great hardship for a time, but in 
the end the honest laborer has been greatly benefited. 
A few years later the same system was extended to 
Ireland, and, as the condition of things there was dif- 
ferent, it caused considerable suffering. 

In 1834 the king, without any valid reason, dismissed 
Lord Melbourne, who had taken Earl Grey's place at 
the head of the Reform Ministry ; and Sir Robert Peel, 
Peel- with the Duke of Wellington, tried to form a 
t0 n in§ " ministry. In this ministry Mr. Gladstone first 
7iSu- y a PP ears - A general election was held in 1835, 
l8 35)- and Peel issued a sort of party platform. It 
was called the Tamworth Manifesto, because it was 
addressed to the electors of Tamworth, which place 
c , Peel represented in Parliament. In this, he 

Second r 

Melbourne accepted the Reform Act as passed. But the 

ministry . l 

(1835- Liberals were nevertheless successful, and Lord 
Melbourne again became Prime Minister. In 
1837 William IV. died, and his niece Victoria became 
Queen. 



i837-] VICTORIA. 297 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

VICTORIA. 

QUEEN VICTORIA was a young woman of eighteen 
when she became queen, in 1837. She had been 
carefully brought up by her mother, and soon won the 
hearts of Englishmen by her dignity and good sense. 
In 1840 she married Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 
But he was never crowned as king consort, and was 
called simply the " Prince Consort" to his death. Lord 
Melbourne continued Prime Minister, and for a time 
the change of sovereigns made little or no difference in 
England's policy. In fact, affairs were now in a satis- 
factory condition in Great Britain. But in Ireland, 
Canada, and Jamaica a spirit of resistance to the 
Government was the rule. 

The Melbourne Government seems to have tried to 
govern Ireland fairly. Indeed, this was necessarily so, 
as it was obliged to rely on the votes of the Irish mem- 
bers of the House of Commons. An under-officer of 
the Government even went so far as to tell a delegation 
of Irish landlords that " property has its duties as well 
as its rights," — a proposition which quite astonished 
the Irish landowners. But the landlords were so strong 
in the House of Peers that the ministry was able to do 
very little for the Irish. 

In Canada there was open rebellion. The French 
and English colonists did not get on well together, and 



298 



QUEEN VICTORIA. 



[1837. 




mg r , ■,., •' :' ^ 



QUEEN VICTORIA, AT HER ACCESSION : ENGRAVED BY THOMPSON 
AFTER A PORTRAIT BY LANE. 



1840.] CANADA ACT. 299 

the English settlers themselves did not like being 
governed by England. The Canadian Constitu- Canada 
tion was suspended, and Lord Durham was sent Act ( l8 4°)- 
over as High Commissioner, or dictator, as he might 
well have been styled. He acted so despotically that 
popular feeling was strongly against him, and he was 
obliged to return home. In the end Parliament passed 
an Act uniting the two Canadas, and giving the colonists 
control of their local affairs. In 1867 a confederation 
of all the British North American colonies was set on 
foot. The new constitution resembles in some par- 
ticulars that of England, and, in more particulars, that 
of the United States. Canada now has almost complete 
control of its own internal affairs, though the direction 
of diplomatic relations is retained by England. It 
should be remembered, however, that Parliament still 
has the substantial control of Canada in its own hands, 
and by merely passing an Act can any day alter this 
whole arrangement. All the British North American 
colonies, save Newfoundland, now belong to this 
confederation. 

The trouble in Jamaica grew out of the scheme for 
gradual emancipation. While the planters owned their 
slaves it was in general good policy to treat their 
dependents fairly well, and thus prolong the period 
of their usefulness. Now, however, when the planter 
would lose his slaves' services at the end of a few years, 
he was naturally tempted to get as much work out of 
them as he could while they were yet his. The Jamaica 
planters in particular treated their slaves with great 
harshness. The English Government acted somewhat 
hastily in the matter, and these planters refused to pass 
any laws in their colonial assembly till their demands 



300 VICTORIA. [1841. 

should be complied with. A bill to compel the Jamaica 
colonists to submission was introduced into the Com- 
mons. The Opposition saw the opportunity, and de- 
feated the Government, upon which the Melbourne 
ministry resigned. 

Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington now 
formed a ministry. It so happened that the ladies in 
The Bed- attendance upon the queen were the wives, 
question* sisters, daughters, aunts, cousins, or friends of 
(1839). t h e Melbourne ministers. The Duke of Wel- 
lington said that, as he had no small-talk, and Peel had 
no manners, it was necessary to have some ladies about 
the queen to explain the plans of the Government. Sir 
Robert Peel accordingly wrote to her that it would be 
necessary to change some of the chief ladies of her 
household. The queen, alarmed at the prospect of 
having to surround herself with strangers, refused, and 
the Melbourne ministry returned. But they had a 
majority no larger than before, and were sneered at 
as " hiding behind the ladies-in-waiting." However, 
they struggled on till 1841, when there was a general 
election. Lord Melbourne proposed to reform some 
of the trade laws. He was opposed by Peel on this 
issue, and, when Parliament met, Peel had the majority 
and became Prime Minister. 

Two great questions occupied Sir Robert Peel's atten- 
tion during his administration. The first was the ever- 
c .. _ , L present trouble in Ireland, which will be best 

Sir Robert r 

Peel's considered later. The second was the over- 
(1841- turning of England's long-cherished financial 
policy. During the wars w 7 ith France the 
manufacturing industry in England had received a great 
impetus, which carried it safely over the dull period 



1841.] SIR ROBERT PEEL'S MINISTRY. 3OI 

after Waterloo. The opening of the ports of South and 
Central America gave England's commerce new life. 
It now became evident to several men skilled in think- 
ing on such subjects that, however it might be with 
other nations, the protective system was no longer suited 
to England. Mr. Huskisson was the leader of this new 
school, and he set on foot a revolution in England's 
commercial policy. As a member of Canning's minis- 
try he opened the British ports to ships of such coun- 
tries as would open their ports to British vessels. He 
also lowered the duty on several raw materials, — wool 
and silk, for instance ; and this made it easier for British 
manufacturers to compete with those of other countries. 
It was impossible to repeal the duty on breadstuffs, but 
a scheme was proposed by which they might be im- 
ported when the price was high in England. The 
Duke of Wellington, however, would not hear of such 
legislation, and it accordingly fell through. But not 
long afterwards the Duke of Wellington himself was 
obliged to carry through just such a law, and this was 
in force in 1841. Sir Robert Peel had won, in the elec- 
tion of 1 84 1, as the leader of the Protectionists. But 
he himself was in no sense a Protectionist. His mind 
worked slowly, and he had a habit of waiting to see 
which way the country was going before he fully 
decided on his course. Before long he became con- 
vinced that if England was to become a great manu- 
facturing country, the tariff must be revised, and as 
many articles as possible added to the free list. In 
five years the duties on raw materials used in the arts 
were either entirely repealed or greatly reduced. The 
most notable instance, perhaps, was the abolition of the 
duty on cotton, — a product almost entirely imported 



302 VICTORIA. [1845. 

from America. This duty amounted to 680,000 pounds 
sterling", or over three millions of dollars. A great 
The in- deficit was thus created in the revenue ; but 
come Tax. ^j s was mac i e good by a tax on incomes of 
so many pence in the pound. 

While Peel was thus reducing the taxes on the manu- 
facturers' supplies, the manufacturers themselves were 
agitating for a repeal of the taxes on breadstuff's. 
Corn-Law The leaders in this agitation were Richard Cob- 
den and John Bright. John Bright was one of 
the greatest orators of the time, and Richard Cobden 
had a remarkable power of explaining intricate details of 
trade to popular audiences ; so that together they exer- 
cised an irresistible influence. A great association, called 
the Anti-Corn-Law League, was established. Pamphlets 
were distributed broadcast, and Bright and Cobden, trav- 
elling from one end of the country to the other, soon 
aroused a tremendous interest in the subject of free trade 
in grain. The working-people deserted their usual lead- 
ers, and money poured in from all sides to aid the new 
crusade. This demonstration was the one thing needed 
to hasten Peel's mental processes. The argument of 
the agitators was something like this. English manufac- 
turers possessed cheaper coal and iron than any other 
manufacturers. Under the new laws other raw materials 
would be as cheap to them as to their competitors. 
One thing alone was dear, and that was labor. Labor 
was dear because the workers must have good wages 
wherewith to buy the high-priced English-grown grain, 
or starve. Now, if they could be permitted to buy 
cheap grain, — imported from America, for example, — 
they would be equally well off with much lower wages. 
Finally, if the English manufacturer could get labor 



I845-] PEEL AND DISRAELI. 303 

at a low rate, he could undersell all his rivals, manu- 
facture for the world, and give steady work to all. 
Therefore the Corn Laws should be repealed. It so 
happened that at the precise moment when Peel, under 
the pressure of the Anti-Corn-Law League, was coming 
to this conclusion, an event occurred which made at 
least a temporary suspension of those laws a necessity. 
This event was the famine in Ireland. 

The people of Ireland lived principally on potatoes. 
Grain was grown in Ireland, but it was sold to England, 
and the proceeds were used to pay the rent due The Irish 
from the farmers to their landlords ; almost j^ 1 "! 
none of it was consumed by the Irish people. l8 49)- 
They lived on potatoes, and they did this because that 
was the cheapest food. In 1844-45 a disease, or 
blight, called the potato rot, swept over western 
Europe. In England and Scotland it did not matter 
so very much, but in Ireland in a few months the food 
supply of millions of men, women, and children was 
destroyed. It was now absolutely necessary, if the 
Irish, and even the English, poor were to live, that the 
Corn Laws should be at least suspended. Peel saw that 
if they were once suspended they could never be re-im- 
posed, and he therefore proposed their total repeal. 

Now Peel's supporters were mainly landowners ; and 
to many of them his conduct seemed simply treason- 
able. Among the younger men of the Conservative 
party was Benjamin Disraeli. He had begun life as an 
extreme Liberal, or Radical ; but now he was a Conser- 
vative of an extreme type. Up to 1845 his career as a 
politician had not been remarkable, but he now saw 
that his opportunity had come. Placing himself at the 
head of the discontented landowners and other believ- 



304 VICTORIA. [1845. 

ers in " protection," he attacked Sir Robert in Parlia- 
ment with all the venom and energy of a venomous and 
energetic nature. He called the Government " an 
organized hypocrisy," and clamored for " vengeance on 




SIR ROBERT PEEL ; FROM THE BUST BY NOBLE IN THE 
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 

the betrayer." Another convert to the Conservative 
party was Lord Stanley, who, as a Liberal, had been 
one of the Reform ministry. In the earlier days of 
Peel's own ministry Lord Stanley had sat in the cabinet. 
He now found himself leading the attack on Peel's 
policy in the House of Lords. Disraeli's vengeance 
was not long delayed. Among other measures, Peel 
had brought forward a Coercion Bill for Ireland. The 



1 849-] LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S MINISTRY. 305 

Protectionists and Liberals joined hands, and, on the 
very day when the bill to repeal the Corn Laws passed 
the House of Peers, Peel resigned. 

Sir Robert Peel never again held office. But during 
the remainder of his life he helped Lord John Russell 
and the Liberals carry out the policy he had begun. 
As a political leader and financier, no modern English- 
man stands higher than he. He had also the highest 
element of true statesmanship, — the ability to sub- 
ordinate one's former convictions to the necessities of 
the time. Peel left behind him a devoted band of dis- 
ciples, — the Peelites, as they were called. The most 
notable of them was William Ewart Gladstone, who, 
even at that time, had a seat in the cabinet. 

The famine in Ireland continued till 1849. I n 1 %A7 
"soup kitchens" were opened in the worst districts, 
and English writers claim that after their establishment 
no one died from actual starvation. But with T 

Lord John 

the famine came a dreadful fever ; and diseases Russell's 
not always fatal now invariably resulted in (1846- 
death. " The people," to use the words of l 5 
Mr. Stuart Trench, " died on the roads, and they died 
in the fields; they died on the mountains, and they 
died in the glens; they died at the relief works, and 
they died in their houses, — so that little streets or villages 
were left almost without an inhabitant ; and at last some 
few, despairing of help in the country, crawled into the 
towns, and died at the doors of residents." How many 
died from the famine will never be known. The popu- 
lation of Ireland in 1841 was over eight millions. In 
1 85 1 it was but six and one half millions, — over one 
and a half million less. As a great many children must 
have been born in the intervening years, more than one 



306 VICTORIA. [1848. 

and a half million men, women, and children must have 
perished in those years or have emigrated. 

During the years following the passage of the Catholic 
Relief Act a party of young and enthusiastic Irishmen 
a young had been gradually supplanting O'Connell. In 
Ireland." jg^ j^ died, and the party of " Young Ireland " 
carried on and extended the agitation he had begun. 
They established a paper, called the " Nation," at Dublin, 
and openly advocated separation from England as the 
only cure for Ireland's ills. Nor were they averse to 
armed resistance. In 1848 a rising came, and proved 
a complete failure. Famine and unsuccessful rebellion 
brought only misery to Ireland. Many landlords seized 
the opportunity, and turned the tenants out of their 
m farms by the wholesale. Entire estates were 

The * 

"clear- cleared of their former occupants in a week. 

cinccs/ J 

This was done, the landlords said, that a new 
and better class of laborers might be introduced. Thou- 
sands of Irishmen, with their families, sought a new home 
in America. In their emigration they were often assis- 
ted by their former landlords and by people in England, 
who seemed to think that partial depopulation, and not 
a just social organization, was the remedy for Ireland's 
wretchedness. 

The Irish rebellion was not the only rising in Europe 
in 1848. In fact, there were so many rebellions in that 
year that it is still often mentioned as the " Year of 
Revolutions." In England there was no actual rebel- 
lion, but the radical reformers were very active. They 
The were called the Chartists, because they had em- 

Chartists. k oc |ied their demands in a document called 
" The People's Charter." They demanded equal elec- 
toral districts, vote by ballot, annual elections, universal 



1848.] THE CHARTISTS. 307 

manhood suffrage, a repeal of the property qualification 
for members of the House of Commons, and the pay- 
ment of members. To an American these things seem 
reasonable enough ; but to Englishmen thirty and forty 
years ago they portended anarchy. The Chartists pre- 
sented petition after petition, — the largest in 1848. It 
was to have been carried to Parliament at the head of 
an enormous procession ; but the Government refused 
to allow any such body to march. One hundred and 
seventy thousand citizens of London enlisted as special 
constables, and soldiers and artillery were placed to 
command the principal streets and bridges. The whole 
demonstration turned out a complete failure. More- 
over, when the Government clerks counted the names 
attached to the petition, they found that there were, not 
five millions, as the Chartists claimed, but only two 
millions. Worse yet, many signatures were forgeries, 
as " the Queen," " Duke of Wellington," " Peel," etc. ; 
while others, like " Pugnose " and " No Cheese," were 
plainly written for the purpose of filling as much paper 
as possible. Since then, however, many of these de- 
mands of the Chartists have been granted. 

The principal man in Lord John Russell's ministry 
was Lord Palmerston, Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs. Lord Palmerston thought he knew more about 
foreign affairs than any one else, and did many things 
without telling the queen, or even his fellow ministers. 
Now, it happened that the queen and her husband — 
both Germans by extraction — took a great interest in 
German politics. They felt that Lord Palmerston did 
not treat them with due respect, and the queen wrote 
to that effect to Lord John Russell. The next year, 
1 85 1, Prince Louis Napoleon, nephew of the great 



308 VICTORIA. [1852. 

Napoleon, seized the Government of France. Lord 
Palmerston distrusted the French people, and felt a 
good deal of contempt for them. In an off-hand way 
he told the French minister at London that Napoleon 
had done right. As Palmerston had not even asked 
the Prime Minister what he thought about it, Lord 
John Russell was furious, and Palmerston was dismissed. 
Th d - Soon after, he and his personal friends, joining 
missal the Opposition for the moment, defeated Lord 

of Lord rr 

Palmer- John Russell on an unimportant matter, and 
compelled his resignation. Lord Stanley, now 

Earl Derby, became Prime Minister, with Mr. Disraeli 

as leader of the House of Commons. 

Two other events connected with the Russell ministry 

deserve mention. The first is the entire repeal of the 
Navigation Laws, in 1849, an d the opening of 

Derby the first international exhibition in the Crystal 
Palace, in Hyde Park, London, in 185 1. This 

last was a great success in every way. The surplus was 

used to found the South Kensington Museum for the 

advancement of art. 

In November, 1852, Parliament came together, and 

the opponents of the Derby-Disraeli ministry were in 
the majority. That ministry resigned, and, the 

Aberdeen Peelites joining the Liberals, a coalition minis- 
try was formed, with Lord Aberdeen as Prime 

Minister. Ever since the time of Peter the Great the 

Czars of Russia had cast longing eyes on Constantinople 
and the provinces of Turkey in Europe. Nich- 

Crimean olas was now Czar, and he thought the time to 

War fe 



(1854- seize Constantinople had arrived. He spoke 

of the Sultan of Turkey as " the sick man of 

Europe," and actually proposed to divide his territo- 



i8s7-] THE SEPOY MUTINY. 309 

ries with England. But England was jealous of Russia, 
and when Nicholas attempted to conquer Turkey, Eng- 
land and France joined forces with the Turks, and 
soon drove the Russians back. The war then took the 
form of a siege of Sebastopol, — a great fortress and 
naval station on the Crimea, as the peninsula reaching 
out into the eastern end of the Black Sea is called. 
During the winter of 1854-55 the English troops suf- 
fered terribly from cold and lack of suitable clothing, 
and even of the very necessaries of life. The English 
people declared that this suffering was due to the inca- 
pacity of Lord Aberdeen ; and he and some others 
opposed to the war resigned. The ministry . 
was reconstructed, with Lord Palmerston as ston 

n • -\/r' • rp, . ministry 

Prime Minister. The war was now carried on (1855- 
with more vigor, and great reforms were made * 5 
in the condition of the English soldiers, under the 
leadership of a woman, Florence Nightingale. In 1855 
Sebastopol was surrendered, and early in 1856 peace 
was made at Paris. 

Scarcely was this war ended when a terrible rebellion 
occurred in India. The skill, energy, and unprincipled 
extortion of Clive and Warren Hastings laid a The Sepoy 
foundation upon which later governors built a / x g^I 
splendid empire. In 1856 England ruled, either l8 5 8 )- 
directly or through subordinate princes, nearly the 
whole peninsula of India. The number of English 
soldiers in India was small. The expedient of employ- 
ing natives as soldiers, and teaching them to use Euro- 
pean arms, had been adopted. The native soldiers in 
the English service were called Sepoys. 

The English Government of India endeavored to rule 
according to modern ideas, and they found it very hard 



3IO VICTORIA. [1858. 

work. Indian society was founded on a mass of castes, 
or fixed grades, between which there was no inter- 
mingling. In trying to simplify the collection of taxes, 
the English, perhaps without realizing it, gave a great 
blow to this system. The good-will of the upper caste 
was thus lost, and the suspicions of all the natives 
were aroused. At this inopportune moment the Eng- 
lish Government decided to equip the Sepoy regiments 
with the Enfield rifle, in place of the old-fashioned 
musket. In those days, before the epoch of the breech- 
loader, the rifle was loaded from the muzzle, the car- 
tridge being covered with grease, to enable it to slip 
down the barrel more easily. Now, animal grease was 
an abomination to the native, whether Hindoo or 
Mohammedan. To his suspicious mind this seemed a 
direct blow at his religion, — especially as the end of 
the greased cartridge had to be torn off by the teeth 
before loading. The Sepoys mutinied, and in 1857-58 
there were fearful massacres, especially at Meerut and 
Cawnpore. After a time, and largely through the 
efforts of Havelock and Sir Colin Campbell, the mutiny 
was suppressed. Its principal results were the repeal 
of Pitt's India Act, and the transference of the govern- 
ment of India to the Crown. 

In 1858 an Italian, Orsini by name, attempted to 
murder Napoleon III., Emperor of the French. It was 
asserted that Orsini planned his scheme in England ; 
and to prevent England's being made the basis of future 
attacks, Palmerston introduced a bill increasing the 
penalty incurred by those conspiring to murder, no 
matter where the murder should be attempted. This 
awakened great jealousy among the English people, 
who are very sensitive about anything which looks like 



1859] THE " FANCY FRANCHISES." 311 

" foreign dictation." Some went further, and declared 
that Palmerston was acting under direct orders Second 
from Napoleon. He was obliged to resign, Disraeli 
and Earl Derby again became Prime Minister, J° 1 8 n ( . 1 gi ry 
with Mr. Disraeli as his right-hand man. l8 59)- 

This second ministry of Earl Derby is memorable for 
the passage of an Act to admit jews to Parliament. 
Hitherto all members of Parliament had been j ews 
obliged to swear to certain things on " the true ^ Parila- 
faith of a Christian." Ten times over, bills had ment - 
been brought in to remove this disability. The Com- 
mons were in favor of the measure, but whenever it had 
come before the Peers they had rejected it. It was 
now agreed to let each House regulate its oaths as it 
pleased. The Commons immediately changed the form 
of its own oath, and in July, 1858, Baron Rothschild, the 
great banker, took his seat in the House of Commons. 

The next spring Mr. Disraeli brought forward a 
scheme for further reform in the representation in Par- 
liament. Mr. Disraeli disliked any scheme of , 

J The " fancy 

representation based on mere numbers. He franchises" 
thought, however, that all classes in the com- D 
munity should be represented, and in his Reform Bill 
of 1859 he tried to provide for this. He proposed, in 
short, to give the right of voting to doctors, lawyers 
college graduates, those receiving a pension from the 
Government, or owning Government bonds, or having 
money in a savings-bank, and many other classes of 
persons. The Opposition laughed at these " fancy fran- 
chises," as they were termed, and defeated the bill. A 
general election was then held, and when Parliament 
assembled, Mr. Disraeli found himself in a minority in 
the Commons. He and Lord Derby resigned, and the 
Liberals again took office. 



312 



VICTORIA. 



[i860. 



Lord Palmerston was again Prime Minister with Lord 
John Russell as Foreign Secretary. Mr. Gladstone now 
definitely threw in his lot with the Liberal party, and 




LORD JOHN RUSSELL : FROM A PAINTING BY SIR F. GRANT, 
IN POSSESSION OF DOWAGER COUNTESS RUSSELL. 



became Chancellor of the Exchequer, or minister of 
Second finance. Lord Palmerston was now an old man, 
ston ner " an d for the rest of his life, which ended with 
J™ 8 " lstry his ministry, he tried only to keep his party 
1862). together, and to avoid all causes of excitement 
at home. In i860 Lord John Russell brought in a 
Reform Bill ; but no interest was taken in the subject, 



i86i.] THE COTTON FAMINE. 313 

Palmerston even staying away from the debates ; so 
Russell withdrew the bill, and no reforms of any kind 
were attempted, except in the finances. 

By this time free-trade doctrines had been accepted 
as true by the great mass of Englishmen. In 1859 a 
commercial treaty with France caused a large „, , 

. ° Gladstone's 

extension of English commerce. Mr. Gladstone financial 

11 1 • • policy. 

seized the opportunity this treaty gave him to 
rearrange all the taxes. In 1845, 1163 articles were 
taxed when imported. By 1859 the number had been 
reduced to 419. During these years of Palmerston's 
second ministry Mr. Gladstone carried bills reducing 
the number of articles taxed at importation to forty-five ; 
and yet all the time the revenue went on increasing. 
This was the more remarkable because during these 
years the Civil War was raging in America, and 
England's trade with the United States was seriously 
impaired. 

The most serious blow to trade, however, was the 
almost entire stoppage of the American cotton supply 
during the Civil War. Upon this cotton the ,„, 

L m The 

working-people of Manchester, Liverpool, and Cotton 
other manufacturing towns depended. When 
the supply ceased, the mills stopped, and no more wages 
could be earned. Starvation stared the working-people 
in the face, and that through no fault of their own. Yet 
they recognized that the cause of the American Union 
was the cause of free labor the world over, and deserv- 
ing of the sympathy of the working-class. But it must 
be remembered that this class had at that time little or 
nothing to do with governing England. 

It was far otherwise with the upper classes. Mr. 
Gladstone placed himself squarely on the side of the 



314 VICTORIA. [1863. 

Confederate States. So did other Liberal leaders, one 
of them going so far as to say that the separation of 
„ , „ the North and South was desirable. Mr. John 

England's ■* 

policy Bright and the Prince Consort remained through- 

during ,_.,,., .. . « 

the Civil out the friends of those struggling in the cause 
of union and freedom ; and it required all their 
influence to prevent England's taking sides. The min- 
istry was soon assailed by both belligerents. The 
seceding States wished belligerents' rights granted them, 
even if England would not go farther and recognize 
their independence. The Southern Confederacy was, 
in fact, recognized as a belligerent ; that is, England 
determined to be neutral, and forbade either party 
using her ports as starting-points for hostile expeditions. 
The trouble was that the English law did not give the 
Government sufficient power to carry out this policy. 
Americans are apt to censure too severely Lord Palmer- 
ston and Earl Russell for their actions during the strug- 
gle. For some unexplained reason, " English society " 
sympathized very strongly indeed with the seceding 
States, and Lord Palmerston needed all his tact and 
energy to prevent the ministry from being forced to 
take the side of the South. Charles Francis Adams 
was the American Minister at London during these 
The "Ala- years. He had a most difficult part to play. 
bama." An English-built privateer, the " Alabama," 
escaped before the Government could make up its mind 
to seize her. Other and more powerful Confederate 
cruisers were on the point of being launched, when Mr. 
Adams wrote promptly to Earl Russell that such negli- 
gence on the part of the English Government was 
equivalent to war. The ministry awoke, and seized the 
cruisers. In the end, the insufficiency of her laws to 



1867.] THE SECOND REFORM ACT. 3 15 

prevent the fitting out of armed expeditions against 
friendly powers cost England fifteen and one-half mil- 
lion dollars, — this being the sum a Court of Arbitration 
held at Geneva awarded as damages to the United 
States. In 1865 Lord Palmerston died, and Lord John 
Russell, who had been raised to the peerage as Earl 
Russell, took his place as Prime Minister. 

Earl Russell, with rather injudicious haste, now 
brought forward a Reform Bill ; but his party was not 
yet ready to vote for such a measure. He was 
defeated, and resigned. Earl Derby and Mr. Disraeli 
Disraeli for the third time took charge of the (1865- 
government. In February, 1868, Earl Derby 
resigned, and Mr. Disraeli for nearly a year was Prime 
Minister. 

The Liberals, though disunited, formed a majority 
in the Commons, and Mr. Disraeli was obliged to act 
very nearly as they wished. He soon brought The 
in a Reform Bill himself; and as the people Second 

. . Reform 

were now taking a great interest in the subject, Act 
a bill for this purpose was carried through. As 
finally passed, the Second Reform Act was really a 
Liberal measure, — more radical, in fact, than either 
Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Bright then wished ; and it greatly 
extended the franchise. 

Up to this time all inhabitants of the several towns 
or parishes in England had been obliged by law to pay 
taxes, or rates, for the support of the Estab- compui- 
lished Church, whether they attended its services ^oHshed 
or not. On the motion of Mr. Gladstone, an ( l868 )- 
Act abolishing compulsory taxation for religious pur- 
poses in England was passed. Then he hit upon a 
scheme for uniting the divisions of the Liberal party. 



3l6 VICTORIA. [1868. 

Ever since the time of Queen Elizabeth the English 
Fall Church had been established in Ireland. Pro- 

of the bably not one-tenth of the people of Ireland 

Disraeli r r 

ministry ever attended the services of the Established 
Church. The Catholics hated it, not merely 
because it was a Protestant Church, but also because it 
was a religion forced upon them by their conquerors ; 
nor did the great mass of the Protestants like it much 
better. Most of them were Presbyterians, and were 
opposed to the English Episcopal Church on their own 
account. The continuance of this State Church of an 
alien minority seemed to English Liberals to be a great 
evil. They joined Mr. Gladstone to disestablish it, or, 
in other words, to separate it from the State. In the 
general election in 1868 the Liberals were successful. 
Mr. Disraeli resigned, and Mr. Gladstone became Prime 
Minister. 

The first thing to be done was to redeem the promises 
made with regard to the Irish Church. This was now 
disestablished, notwithstanding the opposition 
Gladstone of the Peers, who dreaded any change in the 
(1868- relation of Church and State. In place of the 
Irish Church an independent Episcopal Church 
was organized in Ireland. The passage of this measure 
opened the flood-gates for reform, and in the next five 
years one measure after another was carried. 

The most important of these was the Irish Land Act. 
To understand it and the reasons for its passage we 
must look a little more closely into the mode of holding 
Irish land in Ireland. This is the more necessary, 
Act of because to an American the whole land system 
(1870). Q f tf\e United Kingdom seems more or less 
absurd. In all settled countries arable land has a 



1870.] THE IRISH LAND ACT. 317 

value. In America it is usually divided into moder- 
ately small estates, owned by the farmers who cultivate 
them. It is true that many American farms are mort- 
gaged ; but even then the title to the property is in the 
cultivator, as long as he pays his taxes, and interest on 
the mortgage. In England, however, the case is quite 
different. There, the arable land is owned in large 
pieces by a small number of rich landowners. These 
estates are usually divided into farms, which are let, 
with all their improvements, to the farmers who cul- 
tivate them. The terms in each case are determined 
by an agreement between the owner and tenant, called a 
lease. Now, English farmers are usually men of some 
means, who can use their money and brains in an- 
other way if they fail to find a farm to their tastes. In 
Ireland precisely the same conditions prevailed in 
theory. In practice, however, the land systems of the 
two countries were as unlike as two things of the same 
kind could well be. The soil of Ireland was owned by 
a small number of persons, as was the case in England ; 
but there the similarity ceased. In Ireland there were 
few well-to-do farmers able to make satisfactory terms 
with the landlords, or to engage in any other occupa- 
tion. On the contrary, it was absolutely necessary for 
most Irishmen, if they wished to live in Ireland, to have 
land to cultivate ; there was nothing else for them to 
do. Thus the landlords were able to make their own 
terms with their tenants. Instead of providing a farm 
with a system of drainage and buildings all complete, 
the landlord only let the land itself to his tenants. If 
the tenant wished a house to live in, he must build one. 
If he wished a barn to place his crops in, he must build 
that. If he thought draining would make the farm more 



3i» 



VICTORIA. 



[1870. 



profitable, he must make the necessary improvements 
himself. Then in Ireland there were few leases, and 
the great mass of the farmers were only tenants at will; 
that is, the landlords might turn them out of their farms 
at will, the forms of law, of course, being complied with. 




MR. GLADSTONE, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY ELLIOTT & FRY, l88o. 



This was called " eviction." Let us see how this sys- 
tem worked in practice. Suppose a tenant were to 
hire a farm and to improve the land so as to make it 
more profitable. The landlord immediately raises the 
rent; for is not the tenant able to pay more rent? If 
the tenant demurs, he is evicted, and the farm let to 
some one else. So it was not for the interest of the 



1870.] THE IRISH LAND ACT. 319 

Irish farmer to improve his property, or, in fact, to 
appear to be in any way prosperous, — not even to buy 
a new coat ; for if the landlord saw him with a new coat 
on his back, he might be tempted to raise the rent. 
The inevitable result of such a system was bad cultiva- 
tion, and a conflict between the two classes, which went 
by the name of the " land-war." The Irish desired a 
share in the land. They demanded a fixity of tenure ; 
that is, the right to one's holding as long as the rent 
was paid. They also demanded that the tenant should 
have the right, when he left his holding, to sell his 
improvements to the incoming tenant. Finally, they 
demanded fair rents, — the amount to be determined by 
a court instituted for that purpose. The first two de- 
mands were practically included under what was known 
as the " Ulster custom " of landholding, — the practice 
which prevailed in the Protestant northern province of 
Ulster. There the tenant enjoyed his holding as long 
as he paid his rent ; and when he parted with it, he 
might sell his improvements under the name of " good- 
will." Mr. Gladstone now made the custom of Ulster, 
which was indeed that of some other parts of Ireland 
also, the basis of his Land Act. By this Act no tenant, 
as long as he paid his rent, could be turned out of his 
holding, or evicted, without receiving from the landlord 
compensation for disturbance. Compensation for im- 
provements was also provided, and the Ulster custom 
and other similar customs were legalized wherever they 
obtained. 

The other great feature of the Act was the attempt to 
establish a peasant proprietary, or small farm system, 
in Ireland. The clauses embodying this scheme were 
mainly the work of Mr. John Bright ; and they are hence 



320 VICTORIA. [1871. 

called the " Bright Clauses." The Act as a whole, how- 
ever, was a complete failure, owing to the imperfections 

of its details. No further attempt was made till 
"Bright 1880 to carry out the great principles of right 

and justice which gave rise to the bill. But by 
the Land Act of 1881 the Government conceded the 
demands of the Irish for the "three F's," as they were 
called, — fixity of tenure, free sale, and fair rents. Since 
that time the Irish have sought to secure " home rule," 
or local self-government. 

It is scarcely conceivable that before 1870 there was 
no scheme for free elementary education in England. 
National Yet such was the case. Attempts had indeed 
education. Deen f r0 m time to time made to remedy this 
state of things ; but the Churchmen and the Dissenters 
were never able to unite on any measure. In 1871, 
however, a bill was passed providing for free elementary 
education to all not able to pay for it. At the same 
time secondary education was much improved, and the 
religious tests at the universities were abolished, except 
for holders of fellowships. 

The next subject taken up was a reform of the army. 
Perhaps in all England there was nothing more anti- 
quated than the army organization ; and nothing more 

antiquated in that organization than the system 
of Pur- of allowing officers to choose their own rank 

chase in . . 

the Army by purchasing a commission. Promotions for 
" merit were rare, and splendid officers, deserv- 
ing well of the nation, might be superseded by rich 
men who could buy a commission. Yet the conserva- 
tive feelings of Englishmen were so strong that it was 
only by a doubtful constitutional expedient that this 
absurd practice could be abolished. The other reforms 



1872.] BALLOT ACT. 32 1 

in the army were not so strongly opposed, and its 
organization was in many ways very much improved. 

The two greatest reforms in the direction of good 
government were the separation of the civil service 
from party politics, and the introduction of vote by 
ballot. Civil service reform had been begun long be- 
fore, and it was now completed. But the Ballot 
Act was an entirely new measure as far as Act 
Englishmen were concerned. Up to this time 
the voting had been entirely open, and every landlord 
knew how his tenants voted ; every manufacturer knew 
how his working-people — such of them as possessed the 
franchise — voted ; and every parish priest in Ireland 
knew how his parishioners voted. Indeed, elections in 
Ireland were struggles between the landlord and the 
priests. The elections throughout the United Kingdom 
could in no sense be called free under such a system. 
In 1872 this was remedied by the passage of the Ballot 
Act, introducing the Australian system of secret voting. 
At the same time very stringent measures were taken 
for the prevention of bribery, which were made still more 
stringent in 1883. A further extension of the franchise 
was desirable, and this was won by the Third Reform 
Act in 1884. At the same time the old borough system 
was abandoned, and representation was based on popu- 
lation. Thus by the three Reform Acts, by the Acts 
forbidding contractors and others sitting in the Com- 
mons, by the Acts against bribery, by the Acts separating 
the civil service from party politics, and by the Acts 
providing for secret voting, the whole structure of Par- 
liament has been changed. The House of Commons 
no longer represents the landowning and wealthy classes 
alone, but the whole mass of the people of the United 
Kingdom. 



322 VICTORIA. [1874. 

These changes, however much they promoted good 
government and freedom, could hardly fail to arouse 
strong opposition. And Mr. Gladstone's Government 
was weakened in another way. It so happened that, in 
1870, a great war broke out between Germany and 
Mr. Glad- France. The Czar of Russia seized the oppor- 
foreign tunity, when France was engaged in this life- 
policy, and-death struggle, to undo the work of the 
Crimean War, and to overthrow the Treaty of Paris of 
1856. Single-handed, England could do nothing, and 
was forced to acquiesce in Russia's demands. This was 
not the fault of Mr. Gladstone or his ministry, but it no 
less made him unpopular. Then, too, while pursuing a 
policy of peace and justice in submitting the disputes 
between the United States and Great Britain to arbitra- 
tion, the Government acquired still more unpopular- 
ity, for the decisions of the arbitrators were in every 
way against Great Britain. All these things, added to 
the desire for rest from reform, turned people against 
Mr. Gladstone. A general election was held in 1874. 
The Liberals were defeated, and Mr. Disraeli became 
Prime Minister. 

The Conservatives had opposed these reform mea- 
sures as strongly as they could ; but they were now 
compelled to carry them out, while taking off 
Disraeli's the edge of the most distasteful changes. But 

ministry ...,,, 

(1874- not much was done, in one way or the other, as 
far as the home land was concerned, and, in fact, 

the t main interest of Mr. Disraeli's administration was 
in his foreign policy. This was in marked con- 

« imperial trast with that of his predecessor. In the first 
place, Mr. Disraeli believed in what he called an 

" Imperial policy." That is to say, he thought England 



1875] PURCHASE OF SUEZ CANAL SHARES. 323 



igfllf 



ijlli 




LORD BEACONSFIELD : FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. HUGHES, 1876. 



should take a leading part in the disputes of the world. 
Perhaps the most striking act of his time was the pur- 
chase of the Khedive of Egypt's shares in the Suez 
Canal. That canal formed part of England's road to 



324 VICTORIA. [1880. 

India. It was in danger of falling completely into the 
hands of the French, when suddenly the English Gov- 
ernment, without any vote of Parliament, bought by 
telegraph the Khedive's shares, — not quite one half of 
the whole capital stock in the enterprise, — for about 
twenty million dollars. 

Before long a great war broke out between Russia 
and Turkey, in which Russia was very successful, and 
Congress seemed about to absorb a large part of Turkey's 
of Berlin, possessions in Europe. Mr. Disraeli, who had 
been raised to the peerage in 1876 as Earl of Beacons- 
field, regarded this as directly opposed to the interests 
of England. A great many Englishmen thought as he 
did, and the following song became popular : — 

" We don't want to fight, 
But, by Jingo, if we do, 
We 've got the ships, 
We 've got the men, 
We 've got the money too." 

The new policy was hence called " the Jingo policy." 
And it was for a time very prosperous. Lord Beacons- 
field went to a general congress of the Great Powers of 
Europe held at Berlin, and Russia was compelled to 
give up most of the advantages she had gained from 
Turkey. In pursuance of this same " Imperial policy," 
perhaps, the queen was easily persuaded to take the 
title of Empress of India. 

Now it happened that Mr. Gladstone was a man of 
very strong feelings and prejudices, as well as of tremen- 
Overthrow dous energy. He became convinced that the 
ser^tiveT Turks had treated the Christians living in the 
(1880). Turkish province of Bulgaria very cruelly ; he 
also thought this " jingo policy " quite wrong. A general 



CONCLUSION. 325 

election was held in 1880, and Mr. Gladstone re-entered 
political life with all his old fire and success. In a series 
of speeches he converted a majority of the voters of 
Great Britain to his views. The Conservatives were 
defeated, and Mr. Gladstone again became Prime 
Minister. 

In thus tracing the formation and growth of the great 
British Empire, the reader will notice the vast energy 
and persistence with which " the expansion of 
England," as it has been called, has been carried British 
on. A little island off the coast of Europe has mpire 
made itself the head of the most marvellous empire 
which the world ever saw. The British Empire has 
now an area of some nine million square miles of terri- 
tory, scattered all over the globe ; and it has one-half 
of the ocean commerce of the world. Its area is nearly 
three times that of the United States, and almost three 
times that of all Europe. This empire lies in all zones, 
bears all products, and represents almost every race, 
color, religion, and mode of government. The sun never 
sets upon the British Empire ; and though this fact is 
now found to be true of the United States also, since 
the acquisition of Alaska, yet it is barely true ; and 
there is no real comparison to be made between the two 
nations as to range of soil and variety of people. 

On the other hand, it is to be remembered that with 
the British Empire, as with the Roman Empire, its 
weakness lies in its very extent. It is not made conciu- 
up, as is mainly the case with the United States, slon - 
of a population speaking the same language and adopt- 
ing similar laws. A large part of those included in the 
British Empire, including the whole vast Indian popu- 



326 VICTORIA. 

lation, are kept there by force of arms, and without any 
real sympathy or fellowship, and may at any moment 
prove a source of weakness rather than strength. Then 
there are colonies, almost purely British in origin, — as 
Australia, — which are so nearly independent that many 
persons consider it only a question of time when they 
shall become detached, like the United States ; and when 
Canada itself may be independent, or join its fate with 
the North American Republic. It is a very important 
fact that, as stated by Sir Charles Dilke, there are three 
times as many natives of Great Britain in the United 
States as in all the British colonies put together. This 
fact, while sometimes a source of jealousy, promises in 
the end to bring this nation and England closer together 
than any other two great nations. At present, our 
commerce is chiefly with England, and it is the English 
influence which is most strongly felt in our social habits 
and, to some extent, in our literature. On the other 
hand, we draw our art from France, and our science 
from Germany, almost as completely as if England did 
not exist. Yet, on the whole, England is nearest to us 
among all nations, and it is the history of England 
which, next to that of our own country, needs to be 
studied by our people. 



INDEX. 



Aberdeen, Lord, Prime Minister, 

308. 
Acadia, ceded to England, 227. 
Act of Succession, or Settlement, 229. 
Act of Supremacy (1534)) Io6 - 
Adams, Charles Francis, 314. 
Adams, John, 264. 

Addington, Mr., Prime Minister, 275. 
Agincourt, battle of (1415), 80. 
Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 239. 
Alabama, 314. 
Albert, Prince Consort, 297 
Albion, 1, 2. 

Alfred, his government, 18. 
Allen, Ethan, 255. 

"All the Talents," ministry of, 277. 
Althorp, Lord, 293. 
Amiens, peace of, 276. 
Andre, Major, 260, 261. 
Angles, 12. 

Anne, 224; portrait of, 225, 228. 
Anne of Cleves, 109. 
Anti-Corn Law League, 302. 
Appeals to Rome, statute forbidding, 

104. 
Argaum, battle of, 279. 
Army, abolition of purchase in the, 320. 
Arnold, Benedict, 255, 256, 260, 261. 
Ashley, Lord, 295. 
Assaye, battle of, 279. 
Attempt to arrest the Five Members,i68. 
Atterbury, Bishop, exiled, 232. 
Austerlitz, battle of, 277. 

Bacon, Francis, Lord Chancellor, im- 
peachment of, 151. 
Bacon, Roger, 49. 
Balliol and Bruce, 51. 
Ballot Act, 321. 



Bank of England, established, 221 j 

suspends specie payments, 272. 
Bannockburn, battle of, 55. 
Barebone's Parliament, 186. 
Barrows, 2. 

Beachy Head, battle of, 220. 
Beaconsfield, Earl of, portrait of, 323 ; 

Imperial policy, 324. 
Bedchamber question, 300. 
Bennington, baitle of, 256. 
Berlin, Congress of, 324; Decree, 281. 
Bill of Rights, 215. 
Bishops' wars, the, 164, 165. 
Black Death, 62. 

Blake, Admiral, and Van Tromp, 190. 
Blenheim, battle of, 224, 
Bloody Assize, 208. 
Blucher, 282. 
Boleyn, Anne, 102. 
Bolingbroke, Lord, 230. 
Boston Port Act, 253. 
Boston, siege of, 254 ; evacuated by 

the British, 254. 
Bosworth Field, battle of, 90. 
Boyne, battle of the, 219. 
Braddock, General, 240. 
Brandywine, battle of, 256. 
Breda, declaration of, 193. 
Bretigny, peace of, 63. 
Bribery, Act against, 233. 
Bright Clauses, the, 320. 
Bright, John, 302, 314, 319. 
Britain, early visitors to, 6 ; Roman 

conquest of, 7 ; Germanic conquest 

of, T2. 

Britons. 3; mode of life, 45 religion, 5. 
Brougham, Lord Chancellor, 293. 
Bunker's Hill, battle of, 254. 
Burgoyne, his campaign, 256, 258. 



328 



INDEX. 



Burke, Edmund, 250, 262, 263, 267, 
269 ; portrait of, 263 ; Reflections on 
the French Revolution, 271. 

Bute, Lord, 244, 246. 

Buxton, Sir Fowell, 295. 

Cade, Jack, rebellion of, 83. 

Caesar, Julius, in Britain, 7. 

Calais, siege of, 62. 

Camden, battle near, 259. 

Camden, Lord (Charles Pratt),25o, 262. 

Campbell, Sir Colin, 310. 

Camperdown, battle of, 272. 

Canada Act, the, 299. 

Canada, rebellion in, 297 ; Dominion of, 
299. 

Canning, George, 277, 279, 285, 286; 
Prime Minister, 287; Foreign Secre- 
tary, 286 ; portrait of, 288. 

Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George 
IV., 286. 

Caroline, Queen, wife of George II., 234. 

Castlereagh, Lord, 275, 277, 281, 285, 
286. 

Catholic Association, 288 j Emancipa- 
tion, 289; Relief Act, 289 ; rent, 289. 

Catholics, English, laws against, modi- 
fied, 258. 

Cavalier Parliament, the, 199. 

Cawnpore, '310. 

Cecil, Robert, Lord Salisbury, 137. 

Cecil, William, Lord Burleigh, 121 ; his 
death, 137; portrait of, 138. 

Cedric, 11. 

Celts, or Kelts, 3. 

Charles I., 153-180; married to Hen- 
rietta Maria of France, 153 j his 
portrait, 155 ; governs without Parlia- 
ment, 158 ; trial and execution of, 
180. 

Charles II., 196-208; recognized king 
by Scots, 182 j overthrown at Wor- 
cester, 183; his escape, 184; king of 
England, 195 ; power of, 197 ; por- 
trait of, 197. 

Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, 
236. 

Charleston, attacked by English, 255; 
capture of, 259. 

Charters, confirmation of the, 54; the 
People's, 306. 



Chartists, the, 306, 307. 
Chatham, Earl of, 257. 
Chatham-Grafton ministry, 250. 
Chaucer, 76; portrait of, 76. 
Church rates, abolition of compulsory, 

Churchill, Lord, afterwards Duke of 

Marlborough, 224 ; deserts James II., 

214. See Marlborough. 
Civil War, England's policy during 

American, 313. 
Clarence, Duke of, murder of, 87. 
Clarendon, Earl of (Edward Hyde), 

168, 196, 202 ; his history, 202. 
Clarkson, Thomas, 295. 
Clearances, the Scottish, 238 ; the Irish, 

3°5- 

Clinton, Sir Henry, 259, 261. 

Cnut, or Canute, 19. 

Coalition, 266. 

Cobden, Richard, 302. 

Colonies, North American, origin of, 
248. 

Commonwealth, the, 182-187. 

Concord, conflict at, 254. 

Confederation, Articles of, 255. 

Constitutions of Clarendon, 36. 

Continental Congress of 1774, 254. 

Conventicle Act, the, 199. 

Convention, the, of 1689, 214. 

Copenhagen, battle of, 279. 

Copyhold tenure, 67. 

Corn Laws, 283, 303 ; repeal of the, 304. 

Cornwallis, 259, 260, 261 ; Lord Lieu- 
tenant of Ireland, 275. 

Corporation Act, the, 199. 

Cotton famine, 313. 

County Clare, election of, 289. 

County, origin of the, 14. 

Cowpens, battle of the, 259. 

Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, 104; his martyrdom, 116. 

Cressy, or Crecy, battle of, 60. 

Crimean War, 308, 322. 

Cromlech, 2. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 158 ,' his " Iron- 
sides," 173,' his portrait, 174; at 
Marston Moor, 175; at Newbury, 
175; proposes the "New Model," 
176; at Naseby, 176; his position on 
religion, 177; at Preston, 179; Ire- 



INDEX. 



329 



land, 181 j at Dunbar, 183; at Wor- 
cester, 183; expels Long Parliament. 
181 ; Lord Protector, 187 ; his death, 
191 ; his policy, 192. 

Cromwell, Richard, Lord Protector, 
192. 

Cromwell, Thomas, 104; his fall, 109. 

Culloden, battle of, 238. 

Cumberland, Duke of, in Scotland, 238. 

Cymry, 4. 

Danes, invade England, 18, 19. 

Danish fleet, seizure of, 279. 

Declaration of Rights, 215. 

Declaratory Act, the (1766), 250. 

Derby, Earl (Lord Stanley), Prime 
Minister, 308 ; second ministry of, 
311 ; third ministry of, 315 

Derby, the Young Pretender at, 236. 

Despenser, Lord, 55. 

Dettingen, battle of, 236. 

Disraeli, Benjamin, 303, 304, 308, 311, 
3*5> 3 J 6, 322; becomes Earl of 
Beaconsfield, 324. 

Dissenters, the, 200 ; relief of Protest- 
ant, 290. 

Divine right of kings, theory of, 151. 

Domesday Book, 27. 

Dover, secret treaty of, 203. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 131-135 ; his por- 
trait, 133. 

Drogheda, massacre of, 181. 

Druids, the, 5. 

Dunbar, battle of, 183. 

Dunstan, St., 19. 

Du Quesne, Fort, 240. 

Durham, Lord, 299. 

Dutch, blockade the Thames, 202. 

East India Company, the English, 
140, 253, 266. 

Economical reform, 258. 

Edgehill, battle of, 172. 

Edinburgh, founded, 12. 

Edward the Confessor, 23, 

Edward I., 50-54; conquers Wales, 
50; conquers Scotland, 51. 

Edward II., 54-56. 

Edward III., 56-59; war with Scot- 
land, 57; war with France, 57; 



causes of, 59 ; French crown, succes- 
sion to, 59. 

Edward the Black Prince, 63. 

Edward IV., 84-87. 

Edward V., 88. 

Edward VI., m-113. 

Edwin of Northumbria, 12, 16. 

Egbert of Wessex, 16. 

Egypt, Napoleon's invasion of, 272. 

Eldon, Lord Chancellor, 287. 

Eliot, Sir John, 155 j his resolutions, 
157; his death, 158. 

Elizabeth, 119-139; her portrait, 119; 
foreign policy of, 128. 

Elizabethan architecture, 140; litera- 
ture, 142. 

Emancipation of slaves, 295. 

Emmett's rebellion, 275. 

Empire, the British, 325. 

England, 12 ,* expansion of, 325. 

English, 12; their religion, 13 ; institu- 
tions, 13; land system, 14; conver- 
sion to Christianity, 15. 

Essex, 11 

Essex, Earl of, in Ireland, 137 ; his exe- 
cution, 139. 

Ethelred "the Unready," 19. 

Evesham, battle of, 48. 

Exclusion Bill, the, 207. 

F's, the Three, 320. 

Factory Act, 295. 

Fairfax, General, 176. 

Falkirk, battle of, 52. 

Fawkes, Guy, 147. 

Five-mile Act, the, 200. 

Flodden, battle of, 100. 

" Forty," the, 236. 

Forty-shilling freeholders in England, 

85 ; in Ireland, 289. 
Fourteenth century, importance of, 

•j^ ; financial policy in, 73 ; clothes, 

74 ; foreign commerce, 74 ; the guilds, 

75 ; rise of English language during, 
76. 

Fox, Charles James, 251, 262, 264 ; 
India Bill, 266, 267,271 ; death of, 277. 

Fox, Henry, afterwards Lord Holland, 
239, 246. 

France, war with (141 5), 79-80 ; alli- 
ance between America and, 257 ; war 



330 



INDEX. 



with (1793), 271 ; war with, renewed 
(1803), 276. 

Franchise, restricted, 85. 

Franchises, the Fancy, 311. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 264. 

Frederick the Great of Prussia, 236, 
240, 243. 

French, the, in America, 240. 

French and Indian War, causes of, 240. 

French revolution, effect of, on Eng- 
land, 271. 

Gaels, or Goidels, 3. 

Gates, General Horatio, 256, 259. 

Gaveston, execution of, 54. 

General warrants, the case of, 246. 

Geneva award, 315. 

Geoffrey of Anjou, marries Maud, 3^. 

George, Elector of Hanover, 229. 

George I., 229-233; portrait of, 231. 

George II., 234-243; portrait of, 237. 

George III., 244-284 ; his policy, 244 ; 
portrait of, 284; death of, 285. 

George IV., 286-295 ; death of, 290. 

Germaine, Lord George, 261 ; becomes 
Lord Sackville, 262. 

Germanic race, 10. 

Germantown, battle of, 256. 

Ghent, treaty of, 282. 

Gibraltar, seizure of, 226 ; relief of, 
265. 

Gladstone, W. E., 296, 305, 312, 313, 
315, 316, 319, 322,324; Prime Minis- 
ter, 316, 325 ; portrait of, 318. 

Glencoe, massacre of, 222. 

Godwin, Earl of Wessex, 22. 

Grafton, Duke of, Prime Minister, 250. 

Grasse, Count de, 261, 265. 

Grattan, Henry, 273. 

Great Britain, Union of, with Ireland, 
275. 

Great Fire of London, 201. 

Greene, General, 259. 

Grenville, George, Prime Minister, 246 ; 
colonial policy of, 248, 249 ; dismissed 
from office, 249. 

Grenville, Lord, Prime Minister, 277. 

Grey, Earl, Prime Minister, 293, 294. 

Grey, Lady Jane, 112. 

Guilds, 75. 

Guilford Court-house, battle of, 259. 



Guinegaste, battle of, 100. 
Gunpowder Plot, 146. 

Habeas Corpus Act, 206. 

Hales, Sir Edward, case of, 210. 

Halidon Hill, battle of, 57. 

Hampden, John, case of, 160 ; his 
death, 172. 

Hampton Court Conference, 149. 

Harold of Wessex, 23, 24 ; elected 
king, 24. 

Hastings, battle of, 24. 

Hastings, Warren, 267 ; trial of, 269. 

Havelock, 310. 

Henry L, 31. 

Henry II., 35-39; effigy of, 38. 

Henry III., 46-49. 

Henry of Lancaster, claims the throne, 
71 ; crowned king as Henry IV., 72, 
77, 78. 

Henry V., 78-81. 

Henry VI., 82-85. 

Henry VII., 95-97. 

Henry VIII., 98-110 ; the Spanish mar- 
riage, 98 ; portrait of, 99 ; war with 
France and with Scotland, 100 ; and 
Francis I., 101 ; divorce from Katha- 
rine, 102. 

Herkimer, General, 256. 

High Commission, Court of, 130. 

House of Commons, origin of, 53, 65 ; 
acts without king or peers, 180; ex- 
pelled by Cromwell, 186 ; restored 
by the army officers, 192. 

Howards, the, 102. 

Howe, General, 258. 

Hundred, the, 14, 

Hunt, Mr. " Orator," 284. 

Huskisson, Mr., 301. 

Hutchinson, governor of Massachu- 
setts, 253. 

Iberian, 3. 

Ierne, 1, 3. 

Income tax, the, 302. 

Independence, American Declaration 

of, 255. 
"Independents," the, 177. 
Indemnity and Oblivion, Act of (1662), 

197. 
Indulgence, Declaration of (1672), 204 ; 

(1688), 211. 



INDEX. 



331 



Instrument of government, 186. 

Invincible Armada, the, 132. 

Ireland, Poynings' Law, 135 ; Estab- 
lished Church of, 135 ; rebellion in, 
136; English settlement of, 136; 
Strafford in, 164 ; rebellion in (1 641), 
168 ; Cromwellian settlement of, 181 ; 
condition of, in eighteenth century, 
273 ; rebellion in, 274 ; Union with 
Great Britain, 275 ; famine in, 303, 
305 ; rebellion in (1848), 306 ; Young, 
306; land system of, 316; Estab- 
lished Church of, disestablished, 316. 

Irish Land Act (1870), 316 ; (1881), 320. 

Irishmen, the United, 274. 

Jacobite Plot, the (1715), 230; 
(1 721), 232 ; rising, the (1745), 236. 

Jacobites, origin of the name, 214. 

Jamaica Bill, 299. 

James I., 144-152; his character, 144; 
portrait of, 150; his theory of "di- 
vine right," 151; persecuted the 
Puritans, 149. 

James II., 208-215. 

Jay, John, 264. 

Jeffreys, Chief Justice, 208. 

Jenkins's ears, 234. 

Jews, admitted to Parliament, 311. 

Jingo policy, 324. 

Joan of Arc, 82. 

John, 41-45 ; loses Normandy, 41 ; the 
interdict, 42 ; submits to the Pope, 
42 ; his death, 44. 

Jutes, 10. 

Katharine of Arragon, 98-103. 

Kent, kingdom of, 11. 

Keppel, Admiral, 262. 

King Arthur, 99. 

King's Friends, 251. 

King's Mountain, battle of, 259. 

Laborers, first statute of, 67. 
Lafayette, 259, 260, 261. 
La Hogue, battle of, 221. 
Lake, General, 274. 
Land Act, 316 ; second, 320. 
Lanfranc, 28. 

Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
42. 



Laud, William, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 159 ; his reactionary policy, 159. 

Lee, Charles, 258. 

Leipzig, battle of, 281. 

Lewes, battle of, 47. 

Lexington, conflict at, 254. 

Liverpool, Lord, Prime Minister, 285 $ 
death of, 287. 

Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, 56. 

Lollards, 66. 

Londonderry, Duke of, 218. 

Long Parliament, the, 165-194. 

Lord George Gordon riots, 258. 

Lords, House of. 295. 

Louis XVIII., 281, 282. 

Louisburg, the capture of (1745), 239. 

Luddites, 283. 



Macaulay, Thomas Babbington, 
Lord, 294. 

Macdonald, Flora, 238. 

Magna Charta, 43. 

Major-Generals, the, 189. 

Maintenance, 78. 

Malta, seized by Napoleon, 272. 

Manchester massacre, 285. 

Marlborough, Duke of, 214, 224, 225. 

Marston Moor, battle of, 175. 

Mary I., 114-118; portrait of, 115; 
marries Philip II. of Spain, 114; the 
martyrs, 116; her death, 117. 

Mary, Queen of Scots, 125 ; her por- 
trait, 127; her claims to the English 
throne, 126 ; execution of, 131. 

Massachusetts Government Act, 253. 

Melbourne, Lord, 296, 297, 300. 

Mercia, 12. 

Methodists, rise of the, 234. 

Middlesex, 99; elections, 251. 

Milton, John, 187; portrait of, 185. 

Ministry, formation of a, 230. 

Monasteries, dissolution of, 106 ; effect 
of, 107. 

Monk, General, 193 ; declares for a free 
Parliament, 193. 

Monmouth, Duke of, 207, 208 ; rebel- 
lion of, 208. 

Monmouth, battle of, 257. 

Monroe doctrine, 287. 

Mortimer, 56, 57. 



332 



INDEX. 



Mosaic Ministry, 250. 

Mutiny Bill, the, annulled, 216. 

Napoleon, 272, 273, 275-279; abdi- 
cation of, 281, 282. 

Napoleon, Louis, 307, 308, 310, 311. 

Naseby, battle of, 176. 

Navigation Ordinance, 189. 

Navigation Laws, repeal of, 308. 

Nelson, Admiral, 273 ; death of, 276 ; 
portrait of, 278. 

Newbury, battle of, 175. 

Newcastle, Duke of, 236 ; Prime Min- 
ister, 240; coalition with Pitt, 241. 

New Forest, the, 28. 

New Model army, 176. 

New Style, 239. 

Nicholas, Czar of Russia, 308. 

Nightingale, Florence, 309. 

Nile, battle of the, 273. 

Nore, mutiny at the, 272. 

Norfolk, Duke of, 289. 

Nonjurors, 218. 

Norman Conquest, 23-28 ; effects of the, 
26. 

North Briton, the, 246. 

North, Lord, 250; Prime Minister, 
251; plan of reconciliation with 
America, 257, 258; fall of, 261; 
coalition with Fox, 266, 268. 

Northmen, or Norsemen, 17. 

Northumbria, 12. 

Oates, Titus, 205. 
O'Connell, Daniel, 288, 289. 
Orangemen, Society of, 274. 
Orders in Council, 281. 
Orsini, 310. 
Out-door relief, 296. 

Pains and Penalties, Bill of, 286. 
Palmerston, Lord, 307-310, 312, 314, 

315- 
Paris, peace at (1763), 245 ; (1856), 309. 
Parliament, first legal, 53 ; separation 

into two houses, 65 ; in the fifteenth 

century, 93, 94 ; duration of, 230 ; 

debates in, published, 251 ; the Short, 

165 ; the Long, 165-194. 
Peasants' revolt, 68. 
Peel, Sir Robert, 287, 288, 294, 296; 



Prime Minister, 300, 301 ; portrait of, 
304 ; fall of, 305. 

Peelites, the, 305. 

Pelham, Henry, 236. 

Peninsular War, 279. 

Penn, Admiral, seizes Jamaica, 190. 

Perceval, Spencer, Prime Minister, 277 ; 
death of, 285. 

Peterloo, 285. 

Petition and Advice, the, 190. 

Petition of Right, 154. 

Philadelphia, evacuation of, 257. 

Pitt, William, afterwards Earl of Chat- 
ham, Paymaster of the Forces, 239 ; 
portrait of, 240 ; coalition with New- 
castle, 241; resigns, 244; becomes 
Earl of Chatham, 250. 

Pitt, William (the younger), 264; 
Prime Minister, 267; financial policy 
of, 268 ; portrait of, 268 ; India Bill, 
268-271; repressive policy of, 272; 
resignation of, 275 ; death of, 277. 

Plague, the, 199. 

Plantagenets, the later, 71. 

Pocket boroughs, 292. 

Poitiers, battle of, 63. 

Poor Law of Elizabeth, 142. 

Poor Law, Reform of, 296. 

Popish plot, 205. 

Poynings' Law, 135. 

Praemunire, statute of, 66. 

Pratt, Charles, later Lord Camden, 247. 

Preston, battle of, 179. 

Preston Pans, battle of, 236. 

Pretender, the Old, born, 212. 

Pride's Purge, 179. 

Printing, 91. 

Protection, overthrow of, 301. 

Protectionists, 301. 

Protector Somerset, in. 

Protectorate, the, 188-195. 

Protestation, the Great, 152. 

Prynne, William, 159-162. 

Puritans, the, 123-125, 131 ; under 
Elizabeth, 123 ; under James, 149 ; 
ideas of the, 194 ; emigration to New 
England, 125-163. 

Pym, John, impeaches Strafford, 166 ; 
ideas on religion, 168; attempt to ar- 
rest, 169 ; seeks aid of the Scots, 172 ; 
his death, 173. 



INDEX. 



333 



Quebec, attacked by Americans, 255. 
Quebec Act, 254. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 143 5 P ortrait of ' 

Reform Act, of 1832, causes of 291 ; 
First, 294 5 Second, 315 ; Third, 321 . 
Regency, 285. 

Regency question, 249, 269. 
Regicides, the, 198. 
Remonstrance, the Grand, 168. 
Responsible government, origin of, 217. 
Restoration, the, 194. 
Richard I., 39 ', his place in history, 40. 
Richard II., 68-72; his abdication, 70. 
Richard III., 88-90; his character, b8. 
Riot Act, 230. 

Rochambeau, Marquis, 260,261. 
Rochelle, attempt to relieve, 154- 
Rockingham, Marquis of, 250, 262-264, 

274. 
Rodney, Admiral, 265. 

Roman walls, 7 5 roads > 8 - 

Romans, conquer Britain, 7 5 leave Bn- 

tain > 9- , • o 

Roses, Wars of the, begin, H- 

Rothschild, Baron, 311. 

Rump Parliament, the, 184 ; expelled 
by Cromwell, 186 ; restored, 192. 

Russell, Lord John, introduces first 
Reform Bill, 293; Prime Minister, 
305, 30/, 3o8; portrait of, 312; be- 
comes Earl Russell, 314, 3 X 5- 

Rye-house plot, 207. 

St. Helena, Napoleon at, 283. 

St. Leger, 256. 

Salisbury, oath of, 27. 

Saratoga, surrender at, 256. 

Saxons, 11. 

Scotland, united with England, 227. 

Scottish Kirk, the, 163. 

Scottish national covenant, 164. 

Schuyler, Philip, 256. 

Sebastopol, siege of, 309. 

Sedgemoor, battle of, 208. 

Self-denying Ordinance, 176. 

Senlac, or Hastings, battle of, 24. 

Sepoy mutiny, 309. 

Septennial Act, 230. 

Settlement, Act of, 229. 



Seven Bishops, the, 211; acquittal of, 

212. 
Seymour, Jane, 108. 
Shelburne, Lord, 250, 262, 264, 266. 
Sheridan, 267. 

Shield-money, or scutage, 36. 
Ship-money, 160. 

Simon of Montfort, 47; his Parlia- 
ment, 48. 
Simnel, Lambert, 95. 
Six Acts, 285. 

Six Articles, Act of the, 108. 
Slaves, emancipation of, 295. 
Sluys, battle of, 60. 
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, 229. 
South-Sea bubble, 230. 
Spain, war with (1739), 2 3 6 ; resist - 
ance of, to Napoleon, 279 ; rising in, 
in 1820, 287. 
Specie payments, suspended, 272. 
Spithead, mutiny at, 272. 
Stamp Act, the, passed, 249; repealed, 

250. 
Stanley, Lord, 304. 
Stanley, Mr., 294. 
Stanwix, Fort, 256. 
Star Chamber, court of, 96. 
Stephen, 33, 34- 
Steuben, General, 256. 
Stonehenge, 5. 

Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl ot, 
164-167 ; impeachment of, 166 ; at- 
tainder and execution of, 167. 
Stuart kings, 143. 
Stuart, Lady Arabella, 146. 
Stuart rising, the (i745)> 2 3 6 - 
Succession, Act of, 229. 
Suez Canal, 323. 
Sussex, 11. 
Swend, the Dane, 19. 



Talavera, battle of, 279. 

Tamworth Manifesto, 296. 

Tarleton, Colonel, 259. 

Tax, the income, 302. 

Tea Party, the Boston, 253. 

Test Act, 204. 

Teutonic race, 10. 

Thomas Becket, 36, 37- 

« Thorough," government of, 164. 

Thurlow, Lord Chancellor, 262. 



334 



INDEX. 



Tories, origin of the name, 207. 

Torres Vedras, lines of, 279. 

Town meeting, 14. 

Townshend, Charles, Chancellor of the 

Exchequer, 250; introduces bills to 

tax colonial imports, 250. 
Townshend duties, the, 250. 
Township, the, 14. 

Toulouse, surrender of French at, 280. 
Trafalgar, battle of, 276. 
Treaty at Versailles and Paris, 265. 
Trenton, surprise of British outposts 

at, 255. 
Troyes, treaty of, 80. 

Ulm, capitulation of, 277. 

Ulster custom, 319. 

Uniformity, Act of, 123. 

Union with Ireland, Act of, 275. 

United Irishmen, society of, 274. 

United Kingdom of Great Britain, 227. 

United States, independence of, ac- 
knowledged, 264 ; treaty with, 264 ; 
war with, 281. 

Utrecht, treaty of, 226. 

Valley Forge, camp at, 256. 

Vane, Sir Henry, introduces the Navi- 
gation Ordinance, 189 ; executed, 198 

Victoria, 297-326; portrait 0^296. 

Vienna, Congress at, 282. 

Vikings, 17. 

Villeinage, abolition of, 92. 

Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, 151- 
153 ; his murder, 156. 

Vinegar Hill, battle of, 274. 

Vittoria, battle of, 280. 

Volunteers, the Protestant, 273. 

Voting, Australian system, 329. 

Wallace, Sir William, 52. 
Walpole, Sir Robert, Prime Minister, 
232-236 ; First Lord of the Treasury, 



232 ; cabinet, 232 ; his policy, 233 ; 
portrait of, 235. 

War of 181 2, 282. 

Warbeck, Perkin, 96. 

Warwick, the king-maker, 86. 

Washington, George, 240 ; commander- 
in-chief, 254, 261. 

Wat Tyler, 68. 

Wat Tyrrel, 31. 

Waterloo, campaign of, 282. 

Wedmore, 18. 

Wellesley, Arthur, Duke of Welling- 
ton, 279. 

Wellington, Duke of, 279-282, 287-289, 
293, 294, 296, 300, 301, 307; por- 
trait, 280. 

Welsh bards, 51. 

Wessex, it. 

Whigs, origin of the name, 207. 

White Plains, battle of , 255. 

White Ship, the story of the, 32. 

Wilberforce, William, 295. 

Wilkes, John, 246, 251. 

William of Normandy, 24 ; claim to 
England, 25 ; crowned William I., 
25 ; his death, 29. 

William II., 30. 

William of Orange, marries Mary of 
England, 204; lands at Torbay, 213. 

William III. and Mary II., 215-224; 
portraits of, 218, 219 ; foreign policy 
of, 220-224. 

William IV., 291-296. 

Witenagemot, 15. 

Wolsey, Cardinal, 100-104 ; his fall, 
103. 

Worcester, battle of, 183. 

Wycliffe, John, 66. 

York, James, Duke of, 202, 204, 205 ; 
bill to exclude from the succession, 
207 ; crowned King James II., 208. 

York and Lancaster kings, 81. 

Yorktown, capture of, 261. 



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